


Team HRMY

by Kirbywarrior655



Category: RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/F, F/M, Humor, Mystery, at some points anyways
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-01
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-02-19 11:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 70,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2387408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirbywarrior655/pseuds/Kirbywarrior655
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Team HRMY (Harmony), an all girl team training at Venus, a Huntsmen school in Atlas, were starting their freshmen year of the school, though even for the huntsmen it was kind of an abnormal year, evil is lucking, and it has a stronger tie to the team then any of them know, will they find out in time, or will they find out when it is to late? (set in the past)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Melody and Harper's trailer

**Author's Note:**

> Before my fans ask me, yes, I know I still need to write for Rt: Life, I'm getting to that, the only reason why this story is being uploaded quicker is sense me and my friend are writing this fic together, as in to say there is two heads in this project instead of one.
> 
> Anyways this is sort of the reboot to Team BLOP sense I didn't like how five weapons were to similar to Monty's creations (then I stopped caring about worrying if people would call me out on that and just decided to reboot the series anyways)
> 
> If you haven't read it, I'm not surprised, it was more or less a fanfiction.net exclusive, though I will put this RWBY fic on this site as well.

*The scene fades in to show Duplica Harper and Angel Melody walking into what seemed to be a sparring arena

_Duplica was seventeen years old, she was rather skinny, around five foot five, had long cyan hair, and a blue flower clip in her hair. For body wear she wore a short sleeved black mini dress with what appeared to be some cyan and blue details on the dress, there is a blue gem on the chest of the dress with four lines on the diagonals of the symbol with form an X on the backside of the dress, there are one line on each sleeve of the dress, and a zigzag stripe on the top and bottom of the dress, every detail but the gem is cyan, there was brown belt that she wore around her stomach, there was a sword hilt on the belt, but instead of a blade there was a chain that snaked down her left leg and into her left sneaker though those disappeared when she used her semblance, she wore black sneakers._

_Angel was eighteen years old, she was more physically built then Duplica, though she is still kind of frail, she's around five foot ten, and had long blond hair. For body wear Angel wore a purple dress that ended around her knee length, a black leather jacket, and black leather boots.*_

 

"And now, the new comers are approaching the arena, nothing's really known about the challengers, except half the audience seems to think they are going to be on the next trip to the hospital." Duplica looked over to Angel as the two continued to walk. Angel smiled over to Duplica.

"They are brave though, two girls of unknown skill, are about to face this arenas best fighter." Duplica frowned.

"Come now, a frown should be the last thing you want your enemy to see on your face." Angel remarked.

"Why?"

"It shows weakness." Duplica nodded.

"Okay." The two walked out to the actual arena.

"Here they are now, introducing Duplica Melody and Angel Harper!" The two walked into the arena.

"Oh man." Duplica sighed out.

"And now, the defender of the arena, you all know him well, introducing, the unstoppable wall, the infinite caliber, the man you watchd send people to the hospital on multiple occasions, the one, the only, Mo, Rot, Aatma!" The crowd roared in excitement. Duplica gasped.

"What, what's wrong?" Angel asked. Duplica frowned.

"I, I don't know, I just don't get a good vibe from this guy." The two watched as the man walked into the ring.

_Mo was eighteen years old, he was quite muscular, he was six foot five, and had short red hair. He wore quite literal body armor, though he wore normal black pants and metal boots._

"This won't take long at all." Mo said confidently.

"You wish." Angel replied as she took out her parasol, pulling the ring which opened the closed the parasol down. A metal blade extended from the top of the parasol's base. She looked over to Duplica.

"Don't forget your aura, it's the whole reason why the boss wanted us to fight here." Duplica nodded.

"Well, let the match, begin!" Mo smirked as he pressed a button on his armlets. They stretched down to his elbow, then the blades extended.

Duplica took out her bow as Angel charged forward.

Angel slashed at Mo, who blocked and attacked with his free hand. Angel ducked and hit Mo with an uppercut before jumping back to dodge another slash he sent her way.

Mo slashed once more, spinning his body so he could kick Angel across the face. Duplica fired an arrow at Mo, though he easily dodged it.

He turned to face Duplica, a few chambers in his armlets spun. He slashed forward, sending a wave of frost at Duplica, a wave of fire was soon to pursue.

"Duplica watch out!" Angel shouted.

Duplica rolled out of the way. The ice wave froze the wall behind Duplica, then the fire wave melted the ice. Angel noticed what was going on.

"Duplica, take point."

"I'll try!" Duplica grabbed the hilt of her bow and turned, she then pulled, the metal string cut at the middle and sharpened the edges of the bow, turning them into two daggers.

Duplica charged, not allowing Mo to continue his tactic.

"Let's see how invincible you really are." Angel commented as she put away her weapon.

She turned to face the water. She put both hands up, and conducted the water, turning it into a ball. She looked over to Mo and Duplica.

"Face it girl, your friend is much stronger." Mo commented as he kicked Duplica to the floor.

"You know, it's not nice to hit girls." Angel said, throwing the water ball at Mo, encasing him in it.

"Duplica, I'll take point now." Angel fired a thunderbolt at the water, then let Mo go. Duplica got up, though she didn't look to happy.

"Are you okay?" Duplica didn't respond, something kicked up in her, something she never really knew, but, for some reason she was more than confident to fight.

What was giving her this strength?

She never had it when she was fighting before. Well, she and Angel barely remember anything about each other, let alone themselves, did she know this guy?

"No, I want to fight." Angel paused.

"Okay, though if you get to hurt I'll have to take that privilege away from you." Duplica smiled.

"I wouldn't even be able to fight at that point." Duplica turned her daggers back into a bow.

She loaded an arrow, a red dust crystal on her bow was glowing. She sighed, letting her aura flow into the crystal.

Mo sighed.

"I tire of this, no more playing around." Mo charged, though instead was knocked back by thirty fire arrows.

Duplica charged forward, getting up close.

"You seem to be missing a melee weapon." Though Duplica could care less, she was running off of instinct at this point.

Mo spun and kicked towards Duplica, though she used her semblance to dodge the attack.

Duplica got behind Mo, forcing her bow onto Mo, trapping him inside it, his elbow blades were useless.

Mo returned the favor by kicking Duplica a good few times before Angel jumped in and slashed at him.

"You will not harm Omega anymore!" Duplica jumped back as Angel jumped forward.

She used her aura to hit Mo across the face with some wind magic. Mo and Angel spun and jumped at the same time, both kicks sent collided with each other. Duplica took the hilt on her belt and ripped it off, the chain went flying off of her shoe and figure.

Duplica pressed the button on her hilt, the chains turned into parts of a sword. Duplica pressed one more button and the chains locked, making a sword.

"Duplica!" Duplica looked to see Angel fly back.

"Such a shame, you girls would have won by now if you weren't so frail." Duplica frowned.

"If I'm so frail how come you haven't defeated me yet? I guess you're just a wimp." Mo was the one to frown now.

"Oh really?" Mo deformed the blades and raised his arms, slipping the bow off of him. He tossed it and kicked it at Duplica.

Duplica kicked it to the side and back flipped from an attack Mo sent her way. Mo kicked forward before spinning to slash at Duplica, he kicked upwards right after. Duplica blocked the first two hits before being knocked back into Angel.

"Tsk tsk, pathetic." Angel got up.

"Shit, how are you holding up Duplica?"

"Ouch." Angel frowned.

"How about we show this kid whose boss? Duplica, use your semblance." Duplica paused.

"Which one?"

"You know which one." Duplica nodded. Angel took out her parasol once more.

"Come here you!" Angel shouted as she put the impact behind Mo.

Mo flew forwards, flipping and blocking Angel's attack with a kick. He moved to swipe with his elbow blade, though something strange happened, another elbow blade blocked his.

"What the?" Mo was interrupted by a swift kick across the face and a rock to the stomach.

He was knocked back, though the kicks kept coming. Eventually he was slammed up against a wall.

"Copy confirmed." Duplica commented.

Mo blocked a slash from Duplica, and parried a stab from Angel. Both girls attacked at one, though Mo used his aura to create a visible barrier in front of him. Both girls slammed into it and the auras force rebounded them to the other side of the arena.

"For the love of Ohm." Duplica got up and looked over to Angel.

"Copy confirmed." Duplica's gauntlets changed and formed into a direct copy of Angel's parasol.

She opened the parasol, revealing the trigger and magazine in the base. Duplica kneeled down to cover herself fully.

Angel got back up and charged forward. Mo fired a wind slash at Angel, though Angel stomped on the ground and jumped upwards, pumping a fist into the air.

The ground in front of Angel rose, blocking the wind. Angel landed on the rock wall and punched it.

The rock wall fell down to the floor, though the ground around it rose upwards. Mo was launched into the air, though a few bullets infused with slowing magic slowed him down.

"Angel, now!" Angel ran over to Duplica and out stretched her hands. Duplica jumped onto her hands, then Angel launched Duplica into the air.

Duplica spun her blade, cutting it into two, the bottom part turned into an elbow blade, though she still had the sword part of Lily's parasol.

Mo attacked once Duplica was at his elevation, though Duplica blocked with her elbow blade. She soared upward, blocking an attack once more with the parasol blade.

She used some wind magic to punch Mo, pointing the punch towards the ground. Sense Mo was flying upwards being punched with high velocity, he's aura was almost broken, though the slowing magic stopped working.

Mo started to spin, his blades where making it difficult to hit him, though he was still falling. Duplica managed to land right onto Mo's family jewel area, then used some wind magic to propel her self away from Mo.

Duplica freely fell.

"Duplica!" Angel ran forward and jumped. Angel caught Duplica as Mo slammed into the ground.

"Duplica." Duplica cutely smiled.

"Did I do good?"

"You forgot to use my, um, your impact magic."

"Aw, but, but."

"But what?"

"You were here to catch me."

"You should not rely on me to save you all the time, what happens if I'm not there to help you?" Duplica paused, then snuggled in Angel's arms, eyes drooping.

"But, you told me last time that if the going gets tough I should let you handle it."

"Fighting some pompous kid isn't?"

"Well falling to my death sure is more important, right?" Angel paused, then sighed before smiling down at Duplica.

"You did well Duplica." Duplica smiled.

"Thank Ohm, so, we won, right?" Angel nodded.

Joann smiled before yawning.

"Well, I'm taking a nap." Angel blushed a little.

"No, wait, Duplica you simply shouldn't, we," Angel sighed as she heard Duplica's deep breathing.

"Need to go back to the locker room so I can heal any injuries you got…" Angel watched Duplica sleep in her arms.

"So cute." Angel murmured.

"And it seems like the two newcomers have won the match, somehow, it was very impressive, so, it's pretty obvious who the victors are, Duplica Melody, and Angel Harper!" Angel smiled down to Duplica's 'napping' figure.

Duplica however was not fully asleep yet, one thing was keeping her up, just who was that man, and why did she feel like she knew him?


	2. Rapture's and Yox's Trailer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is, as the title says, the trailer for the final two members, next chapter is when the story really starts

_*The scene shows Jennifer Yox and Rachel Rapture in the Forest of Evermore,_

_Jennifer Yox was seventeen years old, she was rather average, though her bones were pretty dense, around five foot eight, had long grass green hair, it was tied into a pony tail with her red headband. For body wear she wore a lime tank top, green short shorts, green fingerless gloves, and green combat boots._

_Rachel Rapture was seventeen years old, she was more muscular then Jen, though still average, she was six foot two, had medium length messy brown hair, though most of it was covered by a grey beanie hat, she also wore bracelets, the 'gems' inside of them was really shards of dust crystals the right bracelet had impact and water dust crystals, while the left bracelet had electric and attract crystals. For clothing she wore an orange t-shirt, black pants, and orange shoes.*_

"Rachel, wait, stop!" Jen shouted after Rachel.

"Rachel!" Rachel turned around.

"Jen, please…" Jen stopped walking.

"Rachel… why?" Rachel sighed.

"You know why." Jen paused.

"Was it because of, well, him?" Rachel nodded.

"And to think I thought I had a chance." Rachel sighed before hitting a tree.

"Rachel." Rachel looked over to Jen.

"Why did this happen?" Rachel looked back at the tree.

"You know why…" Jen paused, then walked up to Rachel.

"I told you this wasn't the right thing to do." Rachel allowed Jen to remove the beanie.

"Have you no shame?" Rachel rose an eyebrow.

"Have I no shame? Showing these are the shame." Rachel pointed to her puma ears.

Jen sighed, and then shook her head.

"You seriously think that your ears are the shameful part of this?"

"You think it isn't?"

"No, you covering it up is the problem." Jen tossed the beanie away into total darkness.

"You know, you look a lot better without the beanie." Rachel sighed.

"He didn't think so…" Jen nodded.

"Well, he's an asshole now isn't he?" Rachel sighed.

"Yeah." Jen nodded, then hugged Rachel. Rachel sighed.

"It's okay, let it all out." Rachel nodded, though before anything else could happen a loud roar was heard. The two girls looked over to where the roar was heard.

"Someone denied a sister?" Jen uneasily looked over to Rachel.

"A sister?" There was a chuckle, then another faunas appeared out from behind a tree.

"How long have you been there?" Rachel asked.

Jen took one look at the man's attire.

"White Fang?" Rachel studied the icon as well.

"No, that's not the symbol, there is something different about it." The male faunas nodded.

"You're a member yes?" Rachel shook her head.

"I used to be, though nothing really worked, things didn't clear up." The man sighed.

"I understand your pain dear sister." The man looked over to Jen.

"Whose she?"

"My best friend." The man paused.

"Your friends with the enemy?"

"Excuse me?" Jen asked.

"Oh like you don't know, your kind is horrible to us, like I will believe you are this close friend that sister believes. What if you told her to say so?" The man took off his gloves, revealing some sharp scales.

"Why should I not believe that you are like all other humans?" The man jumped at Jen. He punched, sending Jen flying backwards into a wall.

"Jen!" Rachel shouted. The man jumped forward and punched a tree.

The tree splintered, then snapped. Jen started to get up, though the tree fell down.

"Jen!" Rachel took out her bo staff she spun it around, firing a grenade at the man, knocking him backwards into a tree.

Rachel back flipped up to the man and lunged forward with the weapon, grenade barrel pointing right into the man's chest.

"Stop attacking my friend." The man frowned.

"You think she is your friend?" Rachel frowned.

"I know she's my friend, who are you to tell me the girl who saved my life a few years back is not my friend?" Rachel looked over to the tree.

"Jen." Rachel went to get the tree, though movement behind her made her turn and kicked. She hti the man, and the man hit her at the same time.

Rachel was confused.

"What the fuck?"

"Your clearly not a proud faunas, the only kind of faunas that deserve to live around here are proud faunas." Rachel frowned.

"Just because I'm friends with a human means I'm not proud?" The man sighed.

"Oh girl, you have so much more to learn." Before the man could attack there was a pair of sharp claws blocking his punch.

"What?" A quick upper cut and a kick onto the floor answered his question.

"You okay Rachel?" Jen asked.

"I'm fine, are you? You had a whole tree land on you." Jen smirked.

"Remember what my semblance is?" Rachel paused.

"Go kick this guys ass." Jen nodded as the man got back up.

"You're going to regret this girl." The man roared once more.

A few Grimm showed up. The man roared once more before smirking.

"Have fun with my little friends won't you? I'll warn you though, they haven't eaten in quite a while." With that the man walked off.

"Shit, he can control Grimm?" Jen asked.

"I have no idea, maybe he's a Grimm trainer?"

"Those things exist?"

"I have no clue, maybe they do in Grimm territory? Come on, we need to get out of this forest."

"Right!" Jen jumped forward, slashing at the group of Grimm with the claws that came out of her fingerless gloves. Rachel started to spin her bo staff, whenever a monster got close enough Rachel would hit them, using the explosions of her bo staff to knock back the Grimm.

"Are we even going back to the city at this point!?" Rachel asked.

"I'm not sure. Just keep fighting, unless you want to be killed in Grimm territory. I suggest against it sense our bodies wouldn't be able to be buried." Rachel's eyes widened.

"Shit, this part of the forest is pretty thick. I think we are making our way back."

"Though climbing through trees will give these things time for the kill." Jen paused.

"Well, use your semblance."

"Why?"

"The trees, get them out of the way." Rachel paused, then nodded.

"Alright, cover me!" Jen turned and slashed at a charging Ursa.

"Whoa!" Jen was knocked back, though her semblance made it so she was barely harmed.

She slipped out of the Ursa's grasp and slashed it on the chest. Jen rolled to the side, then got up. She looked to see two more Ursi running at her.

Jen pointed both claws at the two, then gripped the gloves. Squeezing the palms, then the claws fired out of the glove.

The blades shot at the Ursi, spinning all the while. The blades tore through the Ursi once, then flew back to the gloves, ripping through the Ursi once more.

"Rachel."

"Hold on." Rachel spun her bo staff, it started to turn into a grenade launcher.

"It might take a while."

"All the more reason to hurry up you know!" Rachel turned around.

"Do you want to do this or something?"

"If I had the semblance I would." Rachel sighed.

"Just let me do my work." Rachel turned once more and fired. With the power of Rachel's semblance the grenade was able to explode like a mini nuke.

"Hey, I can see the sky again!" Jen was finally able to parry an attack.

"Finally!" Rachel fired once more.

"Awesome, even though this is not good for the environment, keep blasting!" Rachel nodded.

"Well, this forest is forsaken, so I doubt exploding half of it in order to escape both this weird faunas man and the Grimm is exactly something we'll be arrested for." Jen paused.

"Good point."

"Oh well speak of the devil." The man jumped out from a tree, spear at the ready. He landed, slamming the dull end on Jen's head.

Jen was able to withstand the hit without taking too much damage, though she still stumbled backwards.

The man stabbed forwards, Jen blocked with her gloves, kicking up at the man's face. The man stepped back a bit, Jen used this time to turn her left glove into a pistol.

When the man came back he swiped the spear towards Jen. Jen ducked underneath the attack, then tripped the man.

Jen opened fire, though the man rolled out of the way and tripped Jen in the process with his spear. Rachel frowned.

"Stop picking on my friend!" Rachel put the grenade launcher on her back, then pressed a button on both of her bracelets. She raised her arms, both bracelets flew off her arms, and turned into nun-chucks.

Rachel grabbed the white and black crystal sided handles. Rachel swung at the man, hitting him with the blue crystal. The crystal glowed. Rachel jumped and kicked the man across the face, then swung her blue crystal nun-chuck at the man's face.

The crystal glowed, then some water splashed across the man's chest. Rachel ducked under a slash, then hit the man with her second nun-chuck. The yellow crystal began to glow.

Rachel kicked the spear, then attacked the man with both of her nun-chucks at the same time. The water and the electricity of the weapons shocked the man for quite some powerful damage. The man jumped back. He roared once more.

"Time to say goodbye girls." The man looked at Rachel.

"I'll see you never, faunas fake." With that the man jumped back into the shadows. Rachel's brows furrowed.

"You son of a bitch." Rachel threw down her bracelet chucks and grabbed her grenade launcher. She fired in the man's direction. Jen quickly finished off the Grimm, then, it was silent.

"Fake, fake?" Jen frowned, then picked up Rachel's nun-chucks.

"Just because I'm not part of the White Fang, doesn't mean I'm a fake." Jen walked up to Rachel.

"Rachel…" Rachel sighed.

"I guess I really am just a useless faunas." Jen shook her head.

"No you're not, the White Fang has been acting weird lately, you know this negative feeling is a side effect, and well, humans were always jerks to you." Rachel paused, though Jen silently hugging her surprised her.

"For what it's worth, I would never ask for a different friend, you know Kory and Zoey would agree with me." Rachel paused, then sighed.

"I guess so, lets just get back to Atlas..." The two began to walk through the tree maze, soon leveling half of it just to find their way home.


	3. A Slight Malfunction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story kicks off in this chapter, and the four girls go about their day, what mission is Duplica and Angel on, what's ailing poor Rachel, and more importantly, is Venus going to be an all girl school? I don't think that's very important, though for some people that might be important, anyways I'll be posting this story as soon as I get the chapters done, though I hope I can finish before my inspiration fates away.

"Wake up Duplica, wake up, come on, we're going to be late." Angel lightly nudged her close friend and her mission.

Angel didn't really know much about her and Duplica before this event, or, really anything about herself or Duplica even before that fateful day Master Platinum, had saved their lives.

"Urgh, Angel…" Duplica sleepily whined.

"We don't have any time for that."

"Why not? I wanna sleep."

"You can't, we're doing something very important today."

"Like winning a sparring match this weekend wasn't?" Angel sighed.

"Did you forget what we are doing tomorrow?" Duplica lightly grumbled before putting the covers over her once more. Angel rolled her eyes before throwing the covers off of Duplica.

"Come on lady ass." Angel commented as she picked Duplica up, holding her bridal style.

"My ass isn't what's lazy." Duplica commented. Angel laughed.

"What are you talking about, the only thing you use it for is to sit, or nap, l-a-z-y, lazy ass." Duplica lightly slapped Angel's left arm.

"Jerk." Angel laughed.

"Keep up the smack talk and your carrying yourself." Duplica laughed a little.

"Alright, you're a horrible body guard." Angel paused.

"I am?" Duplica laughed.

"No, I was kidding, I was doing what you called 'calling a person's bluff,' I'm not carrying myself yet now am I?" Angel paused.

"Well, at least your learning." Duplica smiled.

"Now come on, we need to get to the hanger." Duplica sighed.

"Why? I wanna sleep." Angel rolled her eyes.

"So whiney, we're going to the hanger sense we are being dropped off to the city of Atlas." Duplica's eye widened.

"Oh, do you think there are any beds on the airship?" Angel sighed, then laughed.

"What's with you and beds?" Duplica smiled.

"I'm sleepy." Angel rolled her eyes.

"No wonder you need a body guard." Duplica shifted a little in Angel's hands.

"Hey whoa wait a minute stop moving so fast!" Duplica giggled a little as she continued to move.

"Duplica seriously, stop that!" Duplica openly laughed as the Angel walked into the hanger area.

"Sir, the girls are here!" Platinum Prime looked over to the entrance.

_Platinum Prime was roughly twenty eight years old, he was pretty muscular, had short messy gray hair. For body wear he wore a black suit, the bottoms of the pants had a few grey gears, and the sleeves had the same design, a gray backpack rested on his back, though the backpack had a few extra pockets compared to the average backpack, and grey boots._

He smirked a little when he saw Duplica's shenanigans.

'She never grew up...' He thought to himself before walking down to the girls.

"Good morning little flowers." Prime managed to choke out, saying anything remotely cute made him die inside.

Both girls looked up to Platinum as he walked up to them.

"Good morning Mr. Prime." Angel said as she bowed, accidentally dropping Duplica.

"Ouch, Angel." Duplica got up. She looked up to Platinum.

"Oh, good morning Prime sir!" Duplica got up and saluted.

"What where you girls doing?" Duplica paused.

"I was wondering if there were any beds on the airship." Prime smirked.

"So looking like you were having a seizure in Angel's arms is what you do when you are curious?" Duplica paused.

"Maybe?" Prime rolled his eyes.

"In any case, the answer is yes, there is a bed in the airship." Duplica's eyes widened as she began to smile.

"There is?" Prime masked his annoyance with a smile of his own. He generally would shout at anyone who has asked him this many questions, though not even Platinum Prime was able to withstand Duplica's very cute childlike attitude.

"Why do you need so much sleep anyways?" Duplica paused, thinking of a response.

"I don't know, all I know is the more I use my semblance thing, the more tired I get, and for some weird reason the more semblance I copy, the more sleep I need every night." Prime paused.

"That makes sense, you need to work out your spirit chi more before you can use your semblance more." Duplica nodded.

"Right, Angel, bring Duplica to the nearest bedroom that you can find."

"Yes sir!" Angel picked up Duplica once more.

"Whoa, Angel I don't think you need to carry me anymore." Angel blushed a little.

"I thought you would be too lazy to walk to the bedroom." Duplica paused.

"Eh, I guess…"

"Exactly." Angel turned and started to walk off.

"Oh, and before you leave." Angel turned.

"Yes sir?"

"Try not to drop Duplica when bowing, you know your job, don't go and do the opposite of it." Angel paused.

"I'm sorry sir." Prime nodded.

"It's nothing to worry about, just remember, there is no point to a goal if you do things that are opposite to your objective." Angel nodded before walking off to the airship.

"Platinum." Prime looked over to two more faunas walk up to him.

"Ah, there you are Gold Gibbon, Copper Chim, where's Silver?"

"What, you talking about Spider?" Gold asked.

"Yes." Copper paused.

"Well, I think Silver said something about fixing Ape, where's Bronze?"

"That Bab's in the airship already, go get Silver right now."

"What's the rush sir?" Prime rolled his eyes.

"Must your memory be so horrible? We are exporting Omega and Gamma to Atlas today remember?" Copper nodded.

"Right, sorry sir." Prime rolled his eyes.

"Just go get Silver."

"Yes sir!"

…

"Come on Rachel, wake up!" Jen shouted as she slammed Rachel's bedroom door open.

Rachel sprang up out of bed, landing right on her left foot and spinning, attacking Jen with her normally non visible tail.

"Gah!" Jen stepped back, both fists are the ready.

"Oh, sorry Jen." Rachel commented.

"Sheesh I know you were always a light and jumpy sleeper, but I didn't think you would use your tail." Rachel frowned, tail now lazily moving about.

"Sorry, but you surprised me, why did you shout at me anyways?" Jen frowned before sitting down on Rachel's bed.

"Today's the day." Rachel paused, tail motionless.

"Oh." She walked over and sat down next to Jen.

"But, we can't go." Jen nodded.

"I know, though we need to talk to Headmaster Thordin about this remember?" Rachel sighed.

"Can't I just stay at home?"

"No, you can't, come on get your clothing on, and this time, no beanie hat, no hiding your tail in your pants, nothing of the sorts, you are going to show the fact that you are a Faunas, and that you are proud." Rachel frowned.

"According to that man I'm not." Jen put a hand on Rachel's shoulder.

"Enough of that, are you seriously going to take what that man said more serious then what I say?" Rachel paused.

"You don't understand Jen, I know you're trying to help, though you just don't understand."

"I understand you are taking this man's insult a lot harder then you should."

"If you were a Faunas you would understand." Jen rose an eyebrow.

"Why do I have to be a Faunas to understand?" Rachel lightly pushed Jen off the bed before putting the covers over herself.

"How else could you understand the constant pain and ridicule these horrendous inhuman appendages I have causes me." Jen paused before sitting next to Rachel's figure.

"Don't make me drag you out as you are right now, cause if I do I think quite a few faunas will have their heads turning, this g string looks really good on you." Rachel blushed a bit, though she knew Jen was not going to stop pestering her until she did what Jen wanted, so she lightly pushed Jen off once more in order to get up herself.

"Okay, okay, fine. Though you better allow me to curl up in a ball in my bed when we are done." Jen chuckled as Rachel slapped on her clothing.

"Come on, let's go." Jen lightly held onto Rachel's right hand.

"And just so you know, Faunas or not, as the second member of the remaining Team, I want you to know that being a Faunas isn't your problem, it's how you fear everyone else will react about it." Rachel sighed.

"Jen, please, seriously, drop it."

…

"Good day to you Mr. Prime, how may we help you today?" A Faunas asked as Prime walked out of the airship.

"I'm just dropping off some cargo that's all." The half bear nodded his head.

"Mind if I ask which cargo sir?"

"Cargo OG1718." The other's eyes widened before going back to a normal expression.

"Ah, well, you may go about your day sir, have a nice one." Prime nodded, though as he turned the others spoke.

"Good luck sir, please show these humans their mistakes." Prime chuckled a little.

"That was the plan all along my brother." Prime walked back to the airship, Duplica and Angel were walking out.

"Alright girls, are you ready to receive your next mission?" Both girls nodded.

"Okay, your current objective is to find these two girls." Prime gave Duplica and Angel two pictures.

"We would like you to confront these two, peacefully, they are not aware of us, though they are going to be our allies, we need you to team up with these two so you can get into the school of Venus. While you two are at the school there are two things we need you to do. One, Duplica, we need you to duplicate as many people's semblance as you can, do you remember how to do that?"

"Let them hit me a few times, then unleash my semblance once I got a good enough lock on them."

"And how do you get that lock?"

"The physical contact helps boost it, the more interaction I get the more likely I can identify the enemies aura, and then I can use their weapons and semblance."

"Now why can you copy their weapons as well?" Duplica paused.

"Well, their weapons are just their external ways to express themselves, a weapon is as much as their aura as their semblance." Prime smirked a little.

"At least you understand that much. Well, you two know your duty, you should go do them, and don't worry, we will be in the city, if anything bothers you please feel free to come back." Prime frowned in a 'please don't actually come back' kind of way. Angel nodded.

"Yes sir, we will get to work immediately." Angel lightly held onto Duplica's hand. Though before she could guide Duplica to wherever these possible allies were Prime stopped her.

"Though before you go on your mission." Both Angel and Duplica looked over to Prime.

"Yes sir?" Angel asked.

"My bank account has been updated to your scrolls for your meals, and possibly for a hotel room if Duplica somehow still needs some more sleep." Angel nodded.

"Thank you for informing us sir, we will complete your job as soon as we can, with minimum cost to your wallet that we can." With that Angel guided Duplica away from the cargo bay.

"Okay, we should go look for the girls from the photograph right now, if you're not tired that is." Duplica looked up to Angel.

"I'm not tired." Angel nodded.

"Good, then how about we go find out who these two girls are." Duplica sighed.

"Fine." Angel paused.

"What's wrong Duplica?"

"I dunno, I wish we could just get a day off, I want to know more about something."

"About what?" Angel asked. Duplica paused.

"I want to know more about the Battle of the Blitz." Angel paused.

"Yeah, I have no clue what that is." Duplica frowned.

"If we had the time to stop by the library I would rent a book that might have some knowledge on the matter." Angel nodded.

"Maybe we can request that from Prime after we find these girls." Duplica frowned.

"But, I wanna learn about this whole thing right now, I feel like it's important." Angel nodded.

"We can, just, after we find these girls." Duplica sighed.

"Okay, though how will be find them, what do they even look like?" Angel looked down at the photos.

"Well, this is what they look alike. So, all we need to do is look for darker hair colors and faunas, not to difficult right?" Duplica sighed.

"If it allows me to find out more about this dream, I'll do it."

…

"Do you think it's not out of the question to try and find some freelancers to join our team?" Jen asked.

"The whole reason why we are withdrawing is because we don't have the others anymore. We could get two new people, though that would create more problems then it would solve." Rachel stated. Jen shrugged her shoulders.

"Sometimes in order for things to get better you need to make more problems if it solves the current one." Rachel sighed as she stirred her coffee, the two were currently sitting down in a coffee shop.

"I don't think that will help our place at all." Jen sighed.

"Yeah, I guess you have a point, well, if there is no other better way to go about this, we will resign." Rachel knew Jen was unhappy with the thought.

"You know you can go without me, I don't want to be a burden." Jen looked shocked before shaking her head.

"No, it's fine, after what happened I don't blame you for wanting to just forget about it all. But do you think constantly repressing these thoughts will help you out at all?" Rachel frowned, looking off to the front of the shop. Some blonde and what Rachel assumed was her date sense they were holding hands had just walked in.

"I'm doing fine thanks for asking." Jen sighed a little.

"No need to get defensive and lie to me you know." Rachel frowned.

"I'm not lying." Rachel looked to the crowd, the same couple where ordering some coffee it seemed.

"Rachel, as your closest friend, I understand you won't be happy to hear the truth, but I know your lying." Rachel paused, it was true, though she didn't want to talk about it.

"Do we really have to talk about this now?" Jen paused.

"Well when are we going to talk about this then?" Rachel looked over to Jen, who was visibly upset, not mad, not exactly sad, just plain upset.

"I've had to repress this for to long because you didn't want to talk about it, I think it's about time that you humor me don't you think?" Rachel frowned.

"Humor you?"

"It's a saying, basically can we just talk about the event?" Rachel frowned.

"I don't want to talk about it Jen, please, just leave it at that." Jen sighed.

"I'm sorry Rachel, but seriously, this is eating both of us away, we have to at least tell the Headmaster about this." Rachel sighed.

"Do we have to?" Jen lightly put her hand over one of Rachel's.

"Unless you want to mope around for the rest of your life yes, we have to."

"Excuse me." Both girls look up. Rachel noted that it was the two girls she saw earlier.

"Yes?"

"Do you mind if we sit here? There are two seats open, and the other tables are full." Jen paused, she saw one table that was open."

"Uh sure." Rachel answered.

"You have Puma ears?" The cyan haired girl commented.

"Duplica, that's not something to just blurt out."

"But Angel, it's true." Rachel awkwardly looked at her coffee.

"What's your name Ms?"

"Duplica, come on let's not to be direct, she doesn't seem to want to talk."

"Rachel." Rachel said.

"Oh, well I think your ears are cute." Rachel looked at Duplica curiously.

"What? I just said your ears look cute on you, do you have a tail as well?" Rachel slowly nodded.

"Aw, that's adorable." The other girls smiled.

"Th,thank you." Rachel was stunned, this girl was really nice.

"Well, now that we have broken the ice." Angel extended her hand to Rachel.

"Hello, my name is Angel Melody, what's yours?"

"My name is Rachel Rapture, and this is my teammate Jennifer Yox." Rachel replied as she shook Angel's hand.

"You only have one teammate?" Rachel paused.

"Well," "yes." Jen paused, Rachel had just cut her off.

"Oh, but don't you need four in order to form a team."

"Yeah, though sadly we can't find two people to join us…" Rachel wasn't sure if having these two joining them was a good idea, Duplica was rather nice, and Angel seemed to be very polite, maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea.

"Well, this is weird to ask sense we just met, though do you think that we can join you?"

"I don't know, do you two have any combat experience?" Jen asked.

"Course we do, we don't have these for nothing." Angel showed the two her parasol and Duplica's katana. Jen nodded.

"Well, how does Rachel feel about this?" Rachel looked over to Angel, she was patently waiting, Duplica was smiling with a 'come on, please?' kind of look on her face, Jen was looking hopeful, though she was trying not to show it.

Rachel sighed, if it would make Jen happy, Rachel would do it…

"I don't see why not." Angel smiled while Duplica looked ecstatic.

"Well, that settles it I guess, I hope you two are ready, cause we are going to Venus right now." Duplica looked puzzled.

"Where is that again?" Jen took her cup.

"Come on, we'll show you." The four got up. Angel lightly holding onto Duplica's right hand with her left hand.

"So, I mean I shouldn't get into your business like this, but uh, are you two dating or something?" Rachel asked.

"It's only fair sense we kind of pointed something out about you, and no. I am Duplica's bodyguard, I'm simply holding her hand as to make sure I will not lose her in this dense crowd." Angel wasn't trying to only convince Rachel though. Rachel nodded.

"You're her bodyguard?"

"Yes I am."

"Mind if I ask what you are guarding her from?" Angel paused.

"Why, from the world really." Rachel looked curious.

"I was hired by some sources that I am not to name aloud in order to keep Duplica safe from harm."

"Why, is she this important or something?" Jen asked.

"Well, let's just say her semblance is." Both Jen and Rachel raised an eyebrow at this.

"Well, we'll see soon enough in the entry test." Now it was Duplica and Angel's turn to look confused.

"There's an entry test?"

"Yup, you two didn't know?" Both shook their heads.

"Well, welcome to Venus."


	4. All In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls attempt to get into the school, though something gets in the way.

"So, what does this test entail?" Angel asked Rachel as the four walked through the gates of the school of Venus.

"Well, I think it's some kind of tournament." Jen replied.

"Some kind of tournament?" Duplica asked.

"Yes, those are a series of matches to make sure all of us are qualified to get into the school itself." Duplica nervously looked at Angel.

"Are we fighting as a team?"

"For a couple of them I think." Rachel replied.

"I heard it was mostly in pairs of two, though some of them is by ourselves as well." Duplica's fear increased.

"You know how to fight by yourself, right?" Rachel asked.

"Well, I mean I do, but Angel generally does the fighting for me."

"Why?"

"Duplica is a pacifist." Both Jen and Rachel looked at each other.

"But, she still fights people."

"Maybe Angel means Duplica prefers to do anything else but fight." Duplica nodded.

"Why else would she need a body guard, her semblance is powerful enough to make her an unstoppable one girl army, if she wants to fight that is." Both Jen and Rachel curiously looked at Duplica.

"Well, I guess we'll find out in a few minutes." The four walked over to a sparing arena.

It seemed like there was a lot of people, they were in a large group, though with some looked it seemed like they were surrounding some guy.

"Who's he?" Angel asked.

"That might be the headmaster." Jen answered.

Duplica looked over to see the man was walking up to them.

"Ah, you must be Rachel Rapture, leader of Team RMDY." Rachel shook her head, then awkwardly looked away.

"Not anymore."

"What do you mean?" The man asked.

"Well, Team RMDY is kind of disbanded, me and Jen Yox are the only two left who are still in the team." The man paused.

"Then who are these two?" Angel stepped forward.

"My name is Angel Melody, and the other new addition is Duplica Harper." The man nodded.

"So, you're looking to form a new team?"

"Yes." Rachel stated, hoping that the man wasn't about to just turn them away because they were not a team at that point. The man nodded, then smiled.

"Well, I don't want to sound conceded, but you made a good decision of choosing this school. The testing course is starting soon, what's your team name?" The others looked at each other.

"So, team names are based off of what again?" Angel asked.

"Well, just about anything really, we could do last names if you want, we did that last time."

"So, we have Harper, Rapture, Melody, and Yox, what could we make with that? What kind of four letter word has a H, R, M, and a Y?"

"Well, it doesn't have to be a four letter word, for example our old team was team remedy. So we can try to find a word that has those four letters."

"Like, Harmony?" Angel suggested.

"Oh, I like that idea." Rachel agreed.

"So, I guess that settles it, we are team HRMY, or harmony really." The man nodded.

"The test should start very soon, I wish you girls the best of luck." The man turned.

"Wait, does that mean I'm the leader?" Duplica asked.

"Indeed it does, it's a lengthy responsibility, though it is also a great one, I hope you will become a strong leader while learning at our academy." With that the man walked off.

"Okay, we should probably get in the building now." Rachel and Jen began to walk off.

Angel joined them, though stopped when she noticed Duplica was not by her side. Duplica was kind of just standing there.

"What's wrong?" Angel asked as she walked up.

"I'm the leader of the group?" Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"But, why, why am I the leader?"

"I don't know, though I can see you as a great leader."

"How do you figure that? I can barely fight by myself, what makes me such a good leader?"

"Well, fighting isn't everything when it comes to leading you know, if anything the leader should be better at telling their allies to fight for them." Duplica paused.

"I don't know about that…"

"Hey, you two, what's the hold up?" Jen asked.

"Uh, nothing!" Duplica ran over, Angel quick on her heels.

"We were just talking about stuff that's all."

"Oh, what were you talking about?" Rachel asked as the four walked to the bleachers of the arena.

"That coffee place." Angel replied.

"Oh, they had nice coffee didn't they?"

"Yeah that was what I was saying." Angel agreed.

"Alright new comers, take your seats." The four looked to the other side of the arena, the man they were talking to was standing in the middle of the arena.

"I, am Headmaster Thordin. Today all of you have enlisted yourself to help in your studying to become the finest huntsmen our kingdom can offer. There will be many ups and downs of your education, though before we start off with that, there is the inauguration exam. There is nothing too much to it, we are just going to put some huntsmen with borderline skills against each other to make sure that their skills are adequate to join, though before you worry too much I'll let it be known now, losing doesn't mean you are not going to pass the test, just give it your all, if you show us your full power, we will allow you in, sense we will know you are a hard worker. Okay, so the first match is going to be Angel Melody from team HRMY versus Star Sapphire from team SEAL."

"Good luck." Duplica said to Angel as Angel stood up.

"I think you should be saying so to this poor soul." Angel ran to the end of the bleachers and jumped, landing into the ring with a good trimmer being sent around her.

"So, you will be my first victim?" Star asked as she jumped down as well, pike at the ready.

"Oh, I hope she'll be fine."

"She'll be fine, she looks like a tough girl." Jen reassured, though Duplica wasn't convinced.

"Let the match, begin!" Star started the fight by stabbing at Angel.

Angel moved to her right, quickly using the stick of her parasol to knock the pike upwards, then kicked it with some wind magic. The pike was slammed to the other side of Star, though Star used this to her advantage.

She jumped upwards, launching herself into the air with the momentum. Star spun her pike around, turning it into its automatic shotgun form.

Star landed onto the ground and fired a shell. Angel noticed and easily opened her parasol.

The fragments of the shell hit the parasol, soon landing back onto the ground. Star continued to fire, the shells were hitting the parasol, though they didn't look like they were scratching.

Star frowned, then took the magazine out of the gun. She put in an orange one, bullets fused with fire dust.

"Come on out of hiding won't you?" Angel noticed, and reloaded the magazine of her parasol's as well.

Star fired, a huge burst of flame shot out of the barrel, it flew forward, determined to melt Angel's riot parasol. The tip of Angel's parasol was glowing blue, gun barrel ready to fire.

"Two can play that game girl." Angel pressed the trigger button, a barrage of water bubbles was shot out of the parasol's gun barrel.

Star continued firing, the fire and water managing to cancel each other, creating a lot of steam. Star ran out of bullets, then loaded a normal clip into her auto shotgun. Angel was standing on the other side of the steam, waiting. It wasn't a smart idea though, sense a pike flew out of the mist and knocked Angel to the floor.

Angel closed her parasol, revealing the base's blade. Angel was knocked down once more, then was knocked to the edge of the steam cloud.

"Son of a," she was cut off by a fierce stab. Angel flew backwards, though she landed on her feet.

"Okay, enough of this." Angel fired a large gust of wind, completely getting rid of the steam cloud's existence near the ground.

Angel noticed Star was charging forward, then fired a purple bolt at her. Star rolled to the right, though was knocked up by a rising pillar of earth.

Angel used some fire magic to turn her bullets into flaming bullets, then let them rip.

Star noticed, and switched her magazine to an ice dust magazine. Star jumped down, unloading as to make the ice melt into water and have the water extinguish the flames.

Star landed, though she ended up being knocked to the other side of the arena by a quick kick by Angel, which was aided by some wind magic.

Star got up, shotgun at the ready.

"I think that's enough, Star's aura is rather low, the winner is Angel Melody, and both of you are ready to face the hardships of this job, you two pass the test." Angel turned.

"Alright, now it's Duplica versus Amber Amethyst and Lapis Lazuli." Duplica's eyes widened in fear.

"Wait, it's a two versus one?" Jen asked Rachel.

"I'm sorry, but what!?" Angel asked as she got up to her seat once more.

Duplica got up, then jumped down like Angel did, though she used some wind dust to lighten her fall.

"This should be very easy." Amber said confidently as she readied her barb wired baseball bat.

"I wouldn't be too cocky Amber, if it's two versus one it probably means this girl is as skilled as the two of us combined." Lapis stated, readying her Halberd and riot shield. Angel shook her head.

"Look at how she's built, I can easily crush her." Lapis sighed, why was she paired with this lard head?

"Never mind, just attack." Amber nodded, then charged forward.

Lapis guarded herself, making sure she would not be hurt when studying the enemy.

Amber swung at Duplica. Duplica blocked with her katana, then punched Amber across the face.

"Brave are we?" Amber asked as she grabbed Duplica's hand.

Duplica blocked another clubbing. Duplica smirked.

"You'll see why soon enough." Amber wasn't fazed, and hit Duplica in the stomach.

Duplica shouted in surprise before being clubbed to the floor.

"Duplica." Angel gasped. Amber smirked.

"I told you she was weaker Lapis." Angel kicked Duplica up into the air, then clubbed her into Lapis's shield.

"I have to help." Jen looked over to Angel.

"No, don't, Duplica will be disqualified, and she might not be able to join us." Angel frowned.

"If this gets out of hand I am going down there to help, it's in my duty to not even supposed to be allowing this to happen." Jen nodded.

"Just, try not to interfere." Angel sighed.

"This Amber fellow seems to be rather violent." Duplica slowly got up.

Lapis stepped back. Duplica smirked.

"You really need to think things through Ms. Amethyst." With that Duplica's weapon changed into Amber's.

There was a murmur in the crowd, then Duplica hit the ground, a few rocks flew up, then formed a vaguely humanoid figure from them.

"Attack her." Duplica pointed at Lapis.

The stone golem turned and charged. Duplica pressed a button on the bat, the barbs started to unravel, the wood was opened, showing a container of fire dust, and the other parts of the bat turned into a dustblower (basically a flamethrower.) Duplica fired at Amber, slowly taking her approach.

"Wow, what did she just do?" Rachel asked.

"Did she just copy Amber's aura?" Jen and Rachel looked over to Angel, for answers."

"I told you her semblance was a powerful one." The three looked back to the action.

The stone golem went to fight Amber, and Duplica was attacking Lapis.

"I don't see what Duplica was worried about, she's doing pretty good." Angel said aloud.

Duplica stepped backwards sense some spikes where shot out of the riot shield. Duplica changed over to Angel's fighting style in order to block the spikes.

Duplica formed an impact under Lapis, though she was quickly knocked into Lapis's shield by a back attack from Amber. Lapis lifted her shield into the air, then both girls were launched into the air due to Duplica's impact magic.

"Your finished." Lapis pointed the shield downward, then fired. Duplica was hit by the spikes, then was slammed into a wall by Amber's club.

"Duplica!" Angel stood up.

"Angel." Angel turned.

"Fuck the rules Jen I'm failing my duty." With that Angel jumped into the arena once more.

"Headmaster, Angel seems to be interrupting, should we stop her?" A woman asked Thordin.

Thordin in turn smirked, then waved a hand to his left.

"Ah, alright then."

"Angel, move in!"

"Yes ma'am!" Angel ran forward, stabbing at Amber. Amber parried with her bat, though she was knocked back by a wind arrow, Duplica had changed auras again.

"What kind of semblance is that?" Rachel asked Jen.

"I haven't the slightest idea." The two looked back down at the arena.

"Angel attack Lapis, I got Amber."

"Not so fast." The battle stopped for a second when Kat Emerald, their final member, jumped into the arena.

"Sir." Thordin lightly moved his left hand once more.

"Oh no you don't, not right when it was a fair fight!" Rachel jumped into the arena as well, knocking Kat's flail away from Duplica.

A loud spark was heard once the weapons collided.

"Ouch!" Duplica noticed.

"Angel, keep Kat away from us."

"Coming right up!" Angel ducked under Amber's bat.

Angel turned to face Kat, though thankfully Rachel blocked Amber's next attack, like she expected. Kat swung forward, flail taser sparking to it's max output.

Angel formed a shield in front of her. The head of the flail broke the shield, though Kat was quickly knocked back by a wind arrow Duplica sent Kat's way.

"How many elements does that bow have?" Rachel asked.

"Well, fire, ice, water, electric or whatever you call it, wind, impact, attract, and thanks to Angel, some of her magic, every type of arrow has a second way of attacking thanks to this semblance and the arrow itself can turn into thirty arrow, a cluster arrow I dubbed it. The best part is that it can also have a dust crystal effect what element it is, imagine thirty fire arrows being launched at you. The only downside is that it takes a lot of my spirit chi to fire one cluster arrow out." Duplica explained as she had to dodge several attack from Lapis's halberd.

"How many more auras do you have?"

"So far, I think I have like, what, five?"

"No, you forgot about James Xiav Haywood." Duplica paused.

"What was that name?"

"James Xiav Haywood." Duplica stopped fighting completely, there was some weird feeling overcoming her.

She felt dizzy, clearly something was wrong.

"Lapis, now!" Amber shouted. Lapis frowned.

"If I must, I don't really want to though." Lapis lunged.

"NO!" Angel jumped forward and took the hit.

Amber ran in and swung. Duplica shouted in pain, the bat had some wind dust of it's own, then the impact slammed Duplica into a wall.

"Duplica!" Angel's eyes were ready to burst out hot flames.

"Stop that at once!" Jen shouted before she jumped in. The woman next to Thordin looked over to him, he was frowning.

"Sir." Thordin shook his head.

"That poor girl is seriously injured, are we not going to help her?" Thordin sighed, then sat back, looking at Angel.

"Hold it right there." Star commented as she jumped back in, though everyone was plastered to a wall soon enough, Angel looked pissed. She jumped at Amber, quickly disarming her and putting the parasol's blade at her throat.

"You will stop this nonsense at once! Striking a docile target, how dare you!" Star ran over, though Rachel shooting at her with a grenade amplified by her power semblance stopped her, Kat, and sadly Jen.

"Jen!" Jen landed, bounced off the ground slightly, then landed on her feet. The seven were going to continue, though clapping stopped them.

"Excellent." Thordin looked pleased.

"Huh?" The remaining part of Team HRMY asked.

"You passed the test." The three looked to see team SEAL put away their weapons, looking pleased with the result.

"Wait, what?" Jen asked.

"The test was to see what your new comers were made out of, and more importantly how you would act as a team, Angel stepping in and evening the odds was actually what I was hoping for."

"Really, but, isn't that against the rules?" Rachel asked.

"You girls showed that when the situation looks ugly you are willing to help each other, rules or not, and you passed with flying colors, though before we continued with everyone else's test, which are all different, we should probably get your leader some help." Angel's eyes widened.

"Duplica!" Amber walked up to Rachel as Angel ran off.

"Sorry about hurting your friend." Rachel frowned.

"I know it was because of the test, but I'm still kind of annoyed with you." Amber nodded.

"Understandable." The six looked over to Angel, who had Duplica in her arms.

"Can one of you hold onto her for me?" Rachel nodded, then walked over and held Duplica.

"She isn't heavy." Rachel commented.

"That's not why I want you to hold her, I can hold her easily myself."

"Then why have me hold her?" Angel put her hands together, though there was a space in the middle of her palms.

A white light began to glow and Angel blinked, her green iris's beginning to glow. She hover her hands are certain parts of Duplica. Duplica's breaths became for relaxed once Angel did so.

"There, she should be fine now." Angel noted as the white light and iris glow faded away.

"What was that?" Jen asked as a few staff walked up to escort the four to the medical wing.

"Oh, just some healing magic." Both Jen and Rachel looked confused.

"Healing magic?"

"My semblance is basically like dust except that it has more elements, and so far I managed to fuse my dress and jacket with many of the elements, healing isn't a dust, or not to my knowledge anyways."

"Come on, we should get Duplica somewhere to rest."

"Right."


	5. Back in Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group tries to learn more about Duplica's sudden black out, was it a memory, or was it just a nightmare?

Chapter 3- Back in Time

A slash, a scream, an explosive, and a bright flash of light, this was something new Duplica remembered as she woke up screaming in some place she didn't know.

"Duplica!" Angel put a hand on Duplica's left hand.

"Angel!?" Angel smiled a little.

"Your fine, everything is fine." Duplica paused, soon relaxing when she realized her friend was still here.

"Where, where am I?"

"You're in the medical wing, we were worried sick." Duplica frowned.

"How long was I out?"

"Roughly eleven hours." Jen replied.

Angel made a hushing noise, though it wasn't loud enough to drown out Jen's voice.

"I was out for how long!?" Duplica was stunned.

"Yes, but it's okay Duplica, nothing important happened in the last eleven hours." Duplica sighed, getting comfortable under the covers.

"Okay."

"Though if you don't mind me asking, what was that all about, did you run out of spirit chi or something?" Duplica shook her head.

"No, no, I had some sort of nightmare or something." Angel looked confused.

"A nightmare caused that?"

"I don't know, all I remember was you saying a name at me, then next thing I know I feel light headed, and then I woke up here." The other three looked at each other.

"Well, while you were resting we got our room number, and the other two moved everything in." Duplica raised an eyebrow.

"You didn't help?" Angel shrugged her shoulders.

"We agreed that someone should stay with you, and sense I am your bodyguard it would only be fair if I stayed back to look after you." Duplica nodded.

"So, how are you feeling?"

"Fine, tired I guess."

"You should get some more rest then." Duplica shook her head.

"Why not?"

"I don't want to get the same nightmare again." Angel sighed.

"You won't get the same nightmare again, you were awake long enough to have a different dream."

"I don't think that's even true," "In any case you copied two more auras, you simply must be tired." Duplica paused, and then yawned.

"Is the room clean?" Angel smiled.

"Yes ma'am, clean as a whistle."

"What about," "Your bed is made and as warm as you normally like it." Duplica paused.

"I'll sleep if we can go to the room." Angel nodded.

"It's a deal then." Duplica went to get up, though her legs gave way.

Duplica made a soft groan noise before collapsing onto the bed once more.

"What's going on here?" The doctor asked as he walked into the room.

"Oh, nothing is going on doctor, were just going to get our leader to our dorm." The doctor paused.

"Alright, just make sure she gets enough rest."

"Of course." Angel noted as she picked Duplica up.

"So, are we allowed into Venus?" Duplica asked.

"Sure are, starting tomorrow we are doing to be starting our schooling carrier." Duplica smiled as Jen opened the door to their dorm room.

"Spin around a little, I wanna look." Angel did so.

"Not that fast, I still need to see smart ass." Angel laughed a little, then slowed down.

The room was rather large, much to Duplica's surprise, there was one clothing closet for each girl, one desk for each girl, a window opposite the door, as for the beds there was a bed on each side of the window, those were Jen's and Rachel's. Duplica's and Angel's bed were put in a bunk form on the right side of the door.

Angel laid Duplica down on the bottom bunk and tucked her in.

"There, better?" Duplica smiled as she snuggled under the covers.

"So warm." Angel smiled before lightly ruffling Duplica's hair.

"Aw, Angel your ruining my hair." Duplica whined. Angel laughed.

"Sorry."

"Sure you are." Duplica playfully retorted.

"Oh, go to sleep you."

"What if I don't want to?"

"We made a deal."

"We never shook hands." Angel paused.

"That's playing dirty." Duplica laughed, eyes drooping.

"Night night." Angel smiled.

"Good morning Duplica." Duplica rolled her eyes.

"Listen here missy."

"Well, it is the morning." Duplica paused.

"Smart ass." Lily smiled a little.

"I'm not the only one."

"Takes one to know one." Duplica playfully retorted, then fell asleep.

"Those two are cute together." Jen whispered to Rachel.

Rachel smiled and nodded in agreement.

Angel turned.

"Welp, we've got situated, so now what else is there to do today, any other business, or is there some down time?" Jen paused.

"Well, sense our leader is asleep I would think we have some free time right now." Angel nodded.

"Alright, that's good to know." Angel poked Duplica.

"What?" Duplica sleepily asked.

"At least take your shoes off when in bed Duplica." Duplica sighed, then lightly kicked her shoes to the floor.

"Now we need to change the sheets." Duplica rolled her eyes.

"Later."

"But."

"Later." There was a pause.

"Alright, good night."

"Morning Melody." Angel sighed.

"Alright, you win." Duplica smiled a little.

"Now I'll go to sleep."

"It's technically a nap."

"Oh bite me." Angel paused.

"You're getting a face full of fire magic if you actually do so." Angel laughed.

"Would never dream of it."

"Riiiiiiiight, well, morning."

"Napping." With that Duplica fell asleep.

"So, are you related or something?" Angel turned, confused by Rachel's question.

"Huh?"

"Are you two related?"

"No, I'm just her bodyguard."

"How did you two meet?" Jen asked.

Angel paused.

"We can't remember."

"Huh?"

"Neither of us can remember a thing."

"You both have amnesia?" Angel paused.

"Whatever that means, sure." Jen looked over to Rachel.

"So you two don't remember anything, other than your names and that fact that you were her bodyguard?" Angel nodded her head.

"That's weird, I wonder what happened to you two." Jen wondered aloud.

"I tell Duplica that we will remember in due time, though I wish we could remember quicker." Angel's voice trailed off as she looked outside.

"So, how did you and Jen meet up?" Rachel frowned at Jen.

"Well, me and her have been friends sense we were young, so we decided to come here and learn how to be a unstoppable pair, then we kind of realized we needed to be a team of four."

"So basically we came right on time?" Jen nodded.

"Sure did."

"Well that was lucky, so how about you two, you dating or anything?"

"Nah, we're close friends sure, though we are not dating." Angel nodded.

"Do you have any idea as to why Duplica had blacked out in the middle of our match?" Angel frowned.

"I don't have the slightest idea to be honest with you. She's not the one to just randomly black out."

"Wait, didn't she say something about blacking out after you said some name to her?"

"Yeah, Rachel has a point Angel, didn't that happen?" Angel nodded.

"Hm, I remember that to, though I don't understand why a name would get Duplica to pass out."

"Maybe it triggered a flash back?" Angel paused.

"It's a possibility…"

"To be fair why else would a name make someone pass out."

"Well, either way we won't be able to ask her until she wakes up, so until then… what should we do?" Jen shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, we don't really have anything mandatory, so right now is really just a time to relax and stuff."

"I've got cards if you want to play some." Rachel offered.

"Maybe, what game are we going to play?"

"Um, how about Grimm shit?" Angel smiled.

"Sweet, I love that game."

"Best be good at it, me and Rachel play it a little too often." Jen noted as she put the card deck on the floor.

The girls sat down around the deck.

"I'm better off at Vale Poker to be honest."

"Really, but, we live in Atlas."

"I know, I'm not sure, but I've always been good at Vale Poker, not sure how I got the skill for it."

"Maybe you'll find out sometime down the road?" Angel nodded.

"Well, I guess I go first." Angel noted as she put down her first two cards.

"So, do you two have a family life, friends?" Rachel tensed up.

"How about you start." Jen suggested.

Angel paused, nothing came back to her.

"Well, um…"

"You don't remember, do you?" Angel frowned, then shook her head.

Jen and Rachel looked at each other.

"It must suck to not remember basically anything." Angel sighed.

"You have no idea." Jen nodded, then put down some cards of her own.

"I'm sorry, I should have thought about that before asking you that question." Angel waved a hand.

"It's fine, I call bull shit Jen."

"Aw." Jen took the deck, adding all the pile back into her hand.

"That was a good call." Angel smiled at Rachel's comment.

"Yes, you better be on your toes girls, cause before you know it I'll beat both of you at your own game." Jen and Rachel both shared a smirk.

"Oh we'll just see about that Angel."

…

"Copper, report." Copper walked into Platinum's room.

Copper bowed.

"Duplica and Angel are officially part of the school, now Duplica will be able to freely copy everyone's auras." Prime smirked.

"Excellent, then everything is going according to plan, alright, you know what needs to be done next."

"Yes sir, I'll go alert the others right now." Copper turned.

"Oh, and Copper." Copper paused, then turned around.

"Yes sir?"

"Remember to tell Bronze, you two are recon, nothing else, that kid's always trigger happy." Copper bowed.

"Will do sir." Copper turned, then walked off.

Prime smirked.

"Excellent, everything is going according to plan…"

…

"Grim shit."

"Best take my final card Jen, looks like I win again!"

"Nice going Angel, this is your fifth victory." Angel smiled.

"I guess I'm good at all card games."

"Every card game? I think we will have to put that statement to the test." Angel laughed.

"We can if you want, what game should we play next then?"

"Not sure, how about Potshot?" Angel nodded.

"Okay, let's go then." Angel looked over to Duplica's bed.

"Never mind, let's put that on hold." Angel got up and walked over to Duplica.

"Morning sleeping beauty." Duplica yawned, then snuggled under the covers.

"I'm sleepy." Duplica replied.

"Even after that nap? It's been at least an hour." Duplica shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, you going to take another nap?" Duplica shrugged her shoulders again.

Angel smiled.

"Come on lazy, we're playing cards, you wanna join?" Duplica paused.

"But, the floors cold." Angel rolled her eyes, then took her jacket off and put it on the floor, flattening it out and evenly folding it before gesturing for Duplica to sit.

Duplica sighed.

"Can I still lie down? I'm comfy…" Angel looked at the other girls.

"We can move closer, pull up a table or something." Jen suggested.

Angel nodded.

Once the three got the other stuff ready they sat around the table and Angel gave Duplica seven cards.

"What game are we playing?" Duplica asked through a yawn.

"Potshot." Angel replied.

"Huh, is that the guessing one?"

"It is indeed that one." Duplica nodded.

"Alright, who starts?"

"You decide, this will be your first decision as the leader." Duplica paused.

"Hey Angel, got any fives?" Angel frowned.

"Sorry Duplica, but it looks like you are going to have to take a potshot." Duplica sighed.

"Aw man." Duplica took a card from the deck, then put two cards down.

"Lucky." Angel complemented.

"Alright Jen, your next." Jen nodded.

"Do you have a six Duplica?"

"Oh man…" Duplica pouted as she gave Jen a six.

"Aces."

"Potshot."

"No, I meant aces as in, well, it's like a phrase I use. Basically Aces means 'awesome,' or 'that's great,' kind of like that."

"Oh, it's like your catchphrase or something?" Jen awkwardly looked at Rachel.

"Basically." Rachel replied.

"That's really cool, I always wanted one of my own, but I'm terrible at making them."

"You're not as bad as you tell." Angel argued.

"You heard my last one, so embarrassing." Duplica commented before hiding herself under the covers.

"Oh, you're over reacting." Angel said as she pulled Duplica's blanket down to reveal her face again.

"You can use Aces if you want." Jen offered.

Duplica shook her head.

"I want my own catchphrase. It's not as cool when someone else uses the catchphrase I use. It's not unique." Jen nodded in understanding.

"Well, what kind of catchphrase are you looking for, like are you looking for a catchphrase that you would use in battle, or perhaps one that you can use at any time, like Aces for example." Duplica paused.

"Can I have both?"

"Well, I don't see why not." Duplica smiled.

"Sweet."

"Do you have any ideas?" Duplica then frowned.

"I've got none at the moment."

"How about, hm, I don't know, making catchphrases is hard when you are actually trying to make one."

"I know right?"

Rachel looked over to Lily while Jen and Joann continued their conversation.

"We're going to have to wait for a bit I think." Rachel commented.

Angel smiled.

"I think so to."

"So, I was wondering…" Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"Are you always doing this kind of thing?" Angel paused.

"Are you referring to me putting a table up to the bed?"

"Well, that and the fact that you put the deck close enough for Duplica to grab without having to shift or get out of bed." Angel nodded.

"Whatever burden I can remove from Duplica's life I am supposed to, and will gladly, remove them myself." Rachel nodded.

"Would you do the same if you weren't her bodyguard?" Angel paused.

"I think I would."

"Why?" Angel shrugged her shoulders.

"I can't remember not doing so."

"Good point."

"So, how often do we spar in this school?" Rachel paused.

"Well, I think we can spar during Fridays and the weekends if we want to, why?"

"Duplica's semblance can only copy others by her actually fighting people."

"Which I would rather not do." Duplica responded.

"Why?"

"Because, fighting is scary." Angel nodded.

"I understand, though remember, you can't be stronger if you do not copy other's auras."

"Their whole aura?" Jen asked.

"Yes, because not only is the semblance unique to the person, so is their weapon, or it's supposed to be anyways, there are some copies. In a way both are connected to the person in question because they are unique to them, therefore Duplica can copy both the person's weapon and semblance."

"But not their appearance?" Angel paused at Rachel's question.

"I think she willingly chooses not to copy that."

"Why?"

"She doesn't want to be a dude." Rachel's eyes widened.

"Oh, oh! I see what you mean now, yeah, I wouldn't want that if I were her."

"Yeah, no one else's body, I want to keep mine. Even though I'm fragile, I was told I look cute, which seems like a complement, so I would like to keep it."

"Makes sense." Jen agreed.

"So, do you know why that name got you so worked up?" Angel asked.

Duplica paused.

A slash, a scream, an explosion, a bright flash of light…

"I'm not sure, I had some kind of flashback, though I can't make heads or butts of it, or tail if you are a faunas."

"Ha ha." Rachel replied.

"Sorry about her comment." Rachel smiled at Angel.

"It's fine, I know she was kidding."

"But on a serious note, you can't remember what the flashback was?" Duplica shook her head.

"Not at all, it was nothing good that's for sure." The other three grew silent.

"Do you think you will know better if you fall asleep again?" Duplica shook her head.

"I didn't get the flashback again, I tried, but nothing showed up." Angel nodded.

"Maybe it will come back to you?"

"Maybe, anyways I'm tired, I'm going back to bed." With that Duplica put her hand down, then snuggled back under the blankets, and was promptly asleep right after.

"Do you think I will have flashbacks like Duplica did?" Angel asked the other two.

"Maybe, who knows, it would be nice so you two can remember who you are." Angel nodded.

"Yeah, well, I guess it's time to move the table back."


	6. The Fallen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group has the day off, and they spend the time trying to improve their skills, though apparently Headmaster Thordin has a meeting with Ozpin, what is the meeting about?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new team is being mentioned in this chapter, and some of them are introduced next chapter, the only reason why I say this is that they play a bigger role to the story then, say, SEAL does.

"Come on, you need to block quicker than that." Angel commented as Duplica was knocked back by an attack.

"Sheesh, you make it sound so easy." Duplica said unhappily as she changed from Jen's aura to James's aura.

It had been roughly a couple weeks sense the group was accepted into the school, and Duplica was able to copy some more auras.

She was currently sparing with Angel in the sparring arena, they okayed it with Thordin so they had the arena for the day to train.

Jen and Rachel were sitting on the bleachers, a few other teams were watching as well.

"It's not too difficult, I'm just defending." Duplica frowned, pointing her bow at Angel's feet.

She fired, an impact was formed under Angel.

Angel quickly noticed and jumped backward, forming an attract in front of her.

Duplica quickly formed an impact in between her and Angel.

She was pulled forward by the attract as her first impact went off. Duplica was right over her second impact right when it went off as well.

Angel's attract deactivated as she had to block a stab from Duplica.

Duplica kicked to Angel's left, connecting the kick and swiftly following up with a fire arrow.

Angel back flipped, landing and quickly shooting a wind slash at Duplica.

Duplica quickly changed auras and rose a wall of rock in front of her. She kicked it at Angel.

"Nice one!" Angel complemented as she broke the wall of rock with a single punch.

Duplica took a step back, clearly surprised.

Angel raised a wall of her own, then punched it at Duplica.

Duplica panicked, then jumped, sadly her foot was caught and she tripped over the wall, falling right on her back.

"Ouch!" Angel frowned, then put her parasol back on her back.

"My head." Angel walked over, iris's glowing.

She lightly lifted Duplica's head, and healed her.

"There, feeling better?" Duplica frowned, then looked away.

"I failed to win, again." Angel sighed.

"The key to being a good leader isn't necessarily being the best fighter, if anything it's better to know how to command others to fight, rather than to fight yourself." Duplica paused.

"But, I still need to be able to protect myself just in case, and if I can't at least equal you there is no way I will be able to protect myself." Angel helped Duplica up.

"Don't be crazy, you just need some more practice, okay, so this time hit me with everything you've got." Duplica paused.

"Isn't that unfair?"

"Not really, just use what you have." Duplica nodded.

"Alright, if you want me to…"

"I hope Angel goes easy on Duplica." Rachel commented.

"If she does then Duplica will be lead in a false direction, sense she might believe that Angel isn't going easy on her." Star replied, after a few weeks team SEAL became friends with HRMY.

"Knowing Angel Duplica must know that she is going very easy on her." Jen argued.

"Good point."

"Keep your focus." Angel reminded as she was able to trip Duplica.

"I could have done some serious damage right there." Duplica frowned, slowly getting back up.

"If I go all out like you want me to this is going to be our last match." Angel nodded.

"Up to you Duplica." Duplica nodded.

Angel went to stab forward, though Duplica changed to Lapis's aura, blocking with her shield.

Duplica used her halberd to knock Angel backwards, then she changed to Amber's aura to use the bat to knock the parasol out of Angel's hands and used some wind dust from within to knock her against a wall.

Angel fell to the ground.

Angel went to get back up, though Duplica putting Star's shotgun to her stomach stopped her.

"See, you just need to use your semblance more often." Duplica frowned.

"But I get more tired more often." Angel shrugged her shoulders.

"You can use it more if you tire yourself out more often, that's how you build up your spirit chi." Angel gestured for Jen and Rachel to walk down.

"Oh no." Duplica groaned.

"Come on, let's not act like you didn't expect us to do this." Angel reasoned.

"If you are going to be able to protect yourself you will need to be able to hold off more than one person." Duplica pouted.

"We'll go one by one, and we'll go easy on you." Duplica shook her head.

The others paused.

"If you are going to train me in this, you might as well actually train me." Duplica paused halfway through, everyone could tell she wasn't comfortable with this idea.

"Um, I think it's better off we start easy on you." Duplica frowned.

"If I'm that weak." Angel shook her head.

"We all started easy Duplica, even me." Duplica paused.

"Fine."

"Well thank god Angel can convince Duplica." Jen muttered over to Rachel.

"Alright, you ready Duplica?"

"About as much as I will ever be I guess." Angel nodded, then Jen ran forward.

Duplica changed auras, grabbing two tonfa out of thin air and blocking a couple slashes Jen sent her way.

Duplica back flipped, landing and quickly blocking two more swipes. Duplica managed to kick Jen in the face.

Duplica spun the tonfa, a hidden dust barrel moving inside the base as Duplica swung at Angel, knocking Angel up in the air with some wind magic.

Rachel jumped forward, though Duplica rolled out of the way, turning the tonfa over to Rachel's weapons.

Duplica spun and threw the bo staff at Rachel, then used the dust chucks to block an attack from Jen, the black crystal glowed.

Duplica jumped back and hit the floor, creating an attract.

Duplica quickly changed over to Angel's aura as to create an impact in front of her to prevent her falling into the attract.

Rachel shot at the ground with her grenade, which sent her flying at Duplica.

Jen was pulled forward, and Angel landed on her.

"Sheesh, she's smart." Jen commented as Angel jumped off her.

"Now if only she had bigger confidence." Angel noted.

Rachel knocked Duplica into a wall.

"Ouch." Duplica collapsed to the floor.

"Whoops." Rachel dropped her weapon.

"Do you use your semblance?" Rachel nodded.

Duplica got back up, new semblance in hand.

"Duplica, are you okay?" Duplica paused.

"I guess? We are so done after this match though." Angel nodded.

Jen started forward, though Duplica threw some kind of hammer at her.

It hit Jen's head and Jen went flying backwards. The hammer rebounded and flew back at Duplica.

Duplica was too scared and ducked under it.

Rachel noticed the weakness and lunged forward with her bo staff.

Duplica noticed and changed into another new aura.

Both Jen and Rachel stopped fighting, Rachel's bo staff barely missing Duplica.

"Um, Duplica no offense, but what is a book going to do for you?" Duplica smiled, then opened the book.

Both Jen and Rachel noticed a pen on top of Duplica's right ear.

Duplica put a hand on the first page, then ripped it off.

"Wait, is that book not important?" Duplica got the paper to rise with some wind dust that was now infused in her dress.

The two watched in confusion as the ink started to glow.

Duplica pushed forward, sending several ice spears to fly out of the page. Both girls were knocked back, though Angel jumped forward. Duplica ripped out one more page and before Angel struck, she vanished.

"What?" Angel turned only to get hit by a bo staff, Duplica had used the auras semblance to teleport behind Angel.

Duplica knocked Angel into the air, though before she could continue Jen knocked her back.

Duplica landed, though as she got up Rachel knocked her down once more.

"Urgh, I yield." Duplica commented.

Angel nodded.

"Rachel."

"On it." Rachel picked Duplica up.

"So, how did I do?" Duplica asked.

"Based on?"

"I guess compared to everyone else." The three paused.

"Well, you managed to hold us off for a few minutes." Jen said sheepishly.

"I knew it, I'm hopeless." Duplica groaned.

"Don't think like that Duplica, you just need some more time to practice, once your spirit chi grows you can change auras and use semblances more often." Duplica sighed.

"Is there an easier way to do this?"

"I think so." Duplica looked over to Jen.

"What is it?" Jen paused.

"Well, I have a recipe for some kind of tea me and my mother used to make, that's how my spirit chi basically never runs out." Duplica nodded.

"Do you think you can make any?" Jen paused.

"Well, maybe, though I think we might need to go into the city for some of the ingredients." Duplica nodded before getting out of Rachel's hands.

"Does this work for certain?" Jen nodded her head.

"Alright, well, could we get it today?"

"I don't see why not." Duplica smiled.

"Sweet, then let's go."

…

"So, you wished to talk to me Ozpin?" Thordin asked, he and Ozpin were currently talking in Beacon.

"Hm, yes there is a pressing matter that I wished to speak to you about." Thordin paused.

"It's nothing dire, I would normally talk to Ironwood about that kind of stuff." Thordin nodded.

"So, what is it you needed to tell me?"

"It's regarding our transfer students."

"Ah yes, so how many teams are moving? I have the list of my transfers." Thordin took out his scroll.

"They are right here." Ozpin took out his scroll.

The two put the scrolls next to each other, and the lists moved to the other's phone.

The two started to read their lists.

"So, where is Glenda anyways?"

"Some of our students are apparently rough housing in the dining hall."

"As in they are having a food fight?" Ozpin's smirk said it all.

Thordin chuckled.

"Oh, the glory days." Thordin paused at one of the names.

"Team DFNC, they are moving to Venus?"

"Unless you have something to say about the matter." Thordin quickly shook his head.

"No, I was just surprised that's all. Especially sense you personally got Nathaniel and Fu out of jail." Ozpin shrugged his shoulders.

"Every person has their decisions, it doesn't matter if they are trained here or at Beacon, they will still be raised to do their jobs, and in the end that's what really matters." Thordin nodded.

"Yes, of course, still I was kind of surprised."

"It's understandable." Opzin looked outside.

"I've been meaning to ask you about Ironwood, how is he doing recently?" Thordin rose an eyebrow.

"Are you referring to the idea that was presented to him recently?"

"I was hoping you had some more information on the matter yes." Thordin paused.

"I'm going to assume you have already asked him personally?"

"Ironwood is a little stuck in his ways, I doubt he would tell me a non biased story." Thordin nodded.

"Well, you know how Ironwood feels about using androids in the battlefield right?" Opzin smiled.

"I already know that part of the story, I want to know more about what he was offered." Thordin paused.

"He has refused to talk about it, it might be horribly inhumane or something, but I do know it has to do with Androids."

"It would make sense, our friend Ironwood isn't really one for using robots." Thordin sighed.

"I wish I could find out more about what the offer was, it took a long time to get Ironwood to use the Ak-130's, so how extreme was the project? I doubt it was something like the spider droid, though I'm not sure what else could be the problem." Ozpin hummed in thought.

"I'm sure he'll tell us when he's ready to think about it again." Thordin nodded.

"Alright, well, I best go, you know, to get the transfer students." Ozpin nodded.

"Good bye old friend, remember to keep in touch."

"Of course, oh, and tell Glenda about this conversation will you, I think she would like to know about Ironwoods recent military debacles." Opzin smiled.

"I'll be sure to tell her."

…

"This should be the right herb." Jen commented as she picked out a packet of seeds.

"Are you sure, how can you tell?" Jen paused.

"Well, you can tell by the hue to the plant on the packet, it's just the right shade, don't worry Angel I'm not going to poison your girlfriend."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, nothing." Jen walked by Angel and over to one more package of seeds.

"Where is Duplica anyways?" Jen asked.

"Oh, she wanted to go clothing shopping, and Rachel tagged along I believe." Jen nodded.

"Well, this is the last of the herbs I need, now we just need pots and dirt, and time." Angel nodded.

"I guess we should go get that right now then."

"Indeed."

…

"So remind me why I let you drag me into this graveyard?" Duplica asked uneasily as she and Rachel walked deeper into the landscape of tombstones.

"Sense I got you that blue dress you wanted sense you didn't have any money with you." Duplica sighed.

"Right."

"Don't worry, zombies aren't real, anyways it'll be real quick." Duplica frowned.

"Fine." The two walked up to a pair of tombs.

"Who are these two?" Rachel sighed before knelling down to the stones.

"Are these two related to you?" Duplica knelt down as well.

She read the tombstones.

"Jake Matriarch and Amy Damper, are they friends of yours?"

"Used to be." Duplica nodded.

"Oh, well I'm sorry to hear about your loss." Duplica stood back up.

"Where they a part of the old team you were in?" Rachel paused.

"How did you…" Duplica waited for a moment before responding.

"It was simple really, you and Jen were applying to a huntress school that requires you go to another school before joining, unless you went through a test to get in." Rachel looked curious.

"I did some reading into the test on the ride over to the city, me and Angel had our suspicions, so, RMDY I'm going to assume."

"Yeah." Duplica frowned at Rachel's tone.

"I'm sorry, I probably should have thought about what I said before I said it."

Rachel nodded.

"It's fine, it just happened recently that's all."

"What happened?"

"The fatal mission." Duplica rose an eyebrow.

"Grimm?"

"Yeah."

"That's rough, I can't imagine losing a friend, let alone two."

"You've never had hardships before?"

"None that I can remember… no, that might be wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"When I passed out I had some sort of… flashback if you will."

"About what?"

"I can't remember, there is only a few things I can remember."

"Like?"

"A slash, a scream, an explosive, and a bright flash of light. I don't know what any of that means, but I feel like I know who was screaming."

"Who was it?"

"That's just the problem, I don't know who it was."

"Huh, that's weird."

"I know right?"

"Well, in any case we should probably leave, I don't think it's best for me to stay here for too long."

"You're telling me." Rachel smiled a little.

"What Duplica, you afraid of some flesh eating zombies?" Duplica nervously looked around.

"You said those are a myth, anyways they can die by bullets, right?" Rachel sighed.

"Fun ruiner." Duplica pouted.

"Zombies aren't fun either."

"Eh, good point, we don't seem to fun huh?"

"We need the other two, I wonder if they are done herb shopping yet."

"Well, we can go find out now if you want."

"Whatever gets us out of this graveyard quicker." Rachel laughed.

"Oh no, there's a spooky scary skeleton!" Duplica rolled her eyes.

"Don't make me drag you to a fabric store." It was Rachel's turn to pout.

"Oh that's cold."

"No, I thought it would give you warm feelings, I'll even buy you some yarn." Rachel smiled a little.

"But you don't have any money with you, remember?" Duplica paused.

"We'll go to the others and Angel can buy you some yarn." Rachel's pout returned.

"Spooky scary skeleton…"


	7. Research

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duplica and friends attempt to find out more about how she and Angel can get their memories back, while making friends along the way, well, 'friends' and friends.

"I can't believe you did that." Duplica laughed.

"Was that spooky enough for you?" Jen sighed as she continued to walk, Rachel clinging to her right arm in embarrassment.

"Duplica next time, please don't do that in public, Rachel will get embarrassed again."

"Only in public?" Rachel asked.

"I'm not going to lie, it was pretty amusing Rachel. I didn't think you could jump that far." Rachel groaned at Angel's comment.

"But on the other side of the coin, Duplica you shouldn't do something like that in general, that's demining to Faunas alike." Duplica frowned.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that." Angel put an arm around Duplica.

"We understand you were just joking around, though please try not to do that in public again."

"Wait, why just in public?" Rachael asked.

"Well, it's kind of amusing."

"It's also kind of cute." Jen added.

Duplica shook her head.

"I won't do that again, I didn't know or think about the reaction, I'm really sorry Rachel." Rachel paused, she was still annoyed with Duplica, though she didn't want to keep her leader and friend upset, it was strange, but Duplica's emotions seemed to affect people a lot more than other people's emotions do, was that perhaps a semblance to an aura she had?

But, then where is her weapon at the moment?

Maybe she was hiding it under her skirt?

It was a possibility, though that would be awkward if it was like two daggers or something.

Judged by Duplica's actions so far Rachel was almost convinced that Duplica would end up cutting off her legs, so she doubted it was an aura.

The other argument was, well, what the hell kind of semblance is using your feelings as a weapon?

What kind of useless semblance is that?

Rachel figured it was probably something to do with Duplica's personality, though now wasn't the time to think about that.

"It's fine Duplica, just don't do that again, especially not in public, okay?" Duplica hung her head in shame.

"Okay." Rachel sighed, then put her hand on Duplica's shoulder.

"It's okay Duplica, I'm not mad with you."

"I guess…"

"So, do you want to go to the library?" Angel decided to change the conversation as to get Duplica in a better mood.

"What for?"

"You know, to look up more about the Battle of the Blitz?" Duplica paused, then her eyes widened.

"Oh yeah! Come on let's go." Duplica started at a brisk walk, though it turned into a jog.

"Hey, wait for us!"

"What's got her in a rush?"

"Duplica recently had a memory come to her, it was something about a Battle of some sorts."

"What kind of battle?"

"No clue, neither of us know, we were hoping that the library would have something on the subject."

"What's the name of the battle?" Rachel asked.

"Um, the Battle of the Blitz I'm pretty sure."

The other three followed through the Library's double doors and into the hallways of books.

"Hm, let's see here." Duplica thought aloud as she walked through the library.

"Books about cooking, about guns, about clowns, ew, ah, here we are!" Duplica said victoriously as she pulled out a book.

"Hey, quiet it down won't you?" Duplica looked over to see some angry girl was looking at her.

_This is girl was seventeen years old, five foot five with short black hair, her bangs were longer and purple. She was still wearing her school uniform. Though her gauntlets and backpack was resting on the table next to her._

"I'm sorry."

"It's called a library for a reason you know, if you wanted to talk so loudly you should have went to the park." The girl snapped.

Duplica frowned.

"I'm really sorry."

"Hey, what's wrong?" Angel asked as she and the other two walked up.

"Your friend deciding that shouting in a library is a good idea that's what's wrong." Angel frowned.

"So she made a mistake, it's fine, it won't happen again." The girl frowned.

"It better not." Duplica worriedly went to hug Angel's left arm.

"Can we just go?" Angel put her right hand on Duplica's left arm.

"Sure, you get the book you needed?"

"I think?"

"Okay, then let's go."

The four walked over to a different part of the library.

"What was her problem?" Jen asked at a whisper.

"No clue, I mean Duplica was a bit loud, though that reaction was a bit harsh." Duplica held onto Angel's left arm a little tighter.

"What's wrong?"

"She was scary." Angel sighed.

"She was a bit irritated, though I doubt she would stay sour at you if we met her again."

"Would we?"

"It's a possibility, after all she was wearing our school's uniform." Duplica nodded.

"Come on, let's just get to business." Duplica sat down and opened the book, she skimmed the table of contents.

She sighed.

"Nothing?" Duplica shook her head in response to Jen's question."

"Well, I guess it's time to find another book." Duplica shook her head.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't want that girl to get mad at me again." Angel sighed.

"Fine, me and the others will go find some more books then."

The girls went at it for four hours, though nothing came out of the search.

"Not this one either?" Duplica asked in an exasperated tone.

"I guess not, are you sure that this battle is real?" Duplica huffed in annoyance.

"I don't even know…"

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I mean, well, I kind of heard that name in a dream I had a little while back, and I wasn't sure what it meant. Maybe it was just a random thing in some random dream? I don't know." Duplica put her head in her hands.

"It's really annoying when the only way I remember stuff is through sleep, half the time I can't tell if it was a memory, or just a dream." The others looked to each other.

"Should we stop searching on the matter?" Duplica sighed unhappily.

"I guess, the Battle of the Blitz is probably just some figment of my imagination."

"You don't know, it could be a real war."

"Then how come it's not in any of these history text books?" The other three paused.

Duplica sighed in annoyance.

"I just want to know about who I used to be, does it have to be this difficult?" Angel sat next to Duplica.

"You need to give it some time, we'll remember everything soon enough." Duplica sighed.

"You said that like two months ago, and now what've I got to show? One made up battle and a single memory that makes absolutely no difference."

"You just need to give it more time."

"Just face it, I don't think we are ever going to get our memories back." Jen and Rachel looked worriedly at each other.

Normally Angel would at least attempt to comfort Duplica with a smile on her face, though at that moment even Angel was frowning, she was personally worried as well.

Truth is told, she hasn't remembered anything at all. The matter was bothering her to, bothering her to the point where she couldn't even try to comfort Duplica in the matter.

"Angel?" Duplica asked.

Angel fully hugged Duplica.

"Angel?"

"I'm sorry Duplica, I know you are tired of hearing this, but you have to give it some time."

"Bull shit, do you even remember anything?" Angel paused.

"I'll say it again, we are not getting our memories back." Angel tightened the hug.

"Stop talking like that, we are getting our memories back, even if you don't believe it." Duplica raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really, then how are we going to wait Angel? A week, a month, a year, cause I'll tell you something, I'm not willing to wait that long." Angel paused.

"I, I, I'll think of something." Duplica sighed.

"I hope so." Before Jen or Rachel could offer a solution there was a light thunk on the table.

"Huh?" The four looked.

"Next time use your eyes when you are looking, or possibly your brains." Rachel frowned.

Duplica looked at the book.

"Wow, thanks friend!"

"Seriously, stop shouting it's a library."

"Oh, sorry!"

The girl sighed before walking off.

"So, what kind of book is it?" Duplica asked.

"Memories and you, a quick and relatively easy way to recover from loss of memory…" Angel's voice trailed off as she flipped the book open.

"What does it say?" The others asked.

"Hm, we should rent this book."

"Sounds like a good idea." Jen agreed.

"I don't think there is anything on the Battle of the Blitz, though to be fair if it is a real battle we will know what it is when we get Duplica to remember more about it." Duplica smiled.

"Sweet, let's do this!"

…

Devlin sighed as he returned from the mechanic shop.

_Devlin is eighteen years old, five ten with medium black hair, he was a Dragon Faunas, his scales were showing on the back of his neck. He had visible scars on his forehead. He wore a black overcoat with blue lining, jeans, and black boots._

"How could they not have the parts I was looking for, now how am I going to upgrade Naga and Wyvern? Oh well, I guess I'll just check back tomorrow or something…" Devlin continued to walk until something caught his attention.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." There was some cute cyan haired girl, though she was doing something rather odd.

"What the fuck?" Devlin walked up to the girl.

"Um, excuse me, miss?"

"Yes? Ow, ow, ow."

"Um, why exactly are you slamming your head against a brick wall?"

"Trying, to, remember, something, ow."

"So smashing your head against a wall is a good idea how?"

"I read it in a book."

"A book?"

"Yeah, Memories and you, a quick and relatively easy way to recover from loss of memory, chapter one basically told me that severe trauma might give you back your memories." Devlin sighed.

"I think that book seemed to have confused its causes for remedies, how the hell would hitting your head on a wall help recover memories?"

"Um… I don't know, but the book says it could work."

"Do you have any proof that it works?"

"… I've seen it happen in a videogame?" Devlin sighed.

"Well what else does this book tell you to do, any more bodily harm?" Duplica thought about it.

"I think so?" Devlin sighed before looking away.

"Just as I thought, this book seems more like a set of rules of how to murder yourself, not recover your memories." Duplica frowned.

"Aw, but, but, it took me and my friends four hours to find this book, please don't let those hours of searching be for nothing." Devlin sighed.

He felt bad, looking for four hours for some useless book?

"Well, I don't know much about the subject sadly, did you check the entire library?"

"Um, well some girl who gets really angry kind of gave me and my friends the book after we looked for roughly four hours." Devlin paused.

"Some girl who gets really angry? Hm… oh, you mean Fu?"

"She's really scary, is she always that angry?"

"Eh, kinda… yeah she's always like that." Duplica frowned.

"How can you talk to someone like that, people are scary when they are angry, and if she is always that angry, how are you not terrified of her?" Devlin chuckled.

"Well, I got use to her I guess…"

"Got used to her?"

"Well, sure she may threaten to kill us daily, but in the end I think she just genuinely hates us." Duplica paused.

"Riiiiiiiiiiight."

"Anyways, where is your team? I don't think they would approve of you slamming your head against the wall."

"Actually, they were who told me to do it in the first place." Devlin's mouth dropped.

"And you say Fu is crazy, your teammates ARE trying to kill you!" Duplica's eyes widened.

"No they're not, we just thought it was something that could work."

"Why would they think that, let alone allow you to try it out."

"The book said it would help."

"… Right, well, where are they? I don't think they should have left you to slam your head against a wall by yourself."

"Um, I think Angel is in the café down the street, Jen went to restock her ammo supply, and Rachel said something about getting a match and burning down a fabric store, I don't know why." Duplica innocently smiled.

Devlin nodded, he was kind of weirded out about Duplica's calmness towards his being, let alone her teammate wanting to burn down a fabric store. Sure, a faunas isn't too rare, though a dragon faunas?

"Hey, Duplica!" Devlin looked over to see Angel run up to them.

"Oh, hey Angel."

"Did what the book say work?"

"I don't know."

"Oh shit, you lost memories, not gained them." Duplica shook her head.

"No, I remember everything."

"You do? Sweet! So, what were we like when we were younger?" Duplica shook her head again.

"No, I didn't remember anything new, but I didn't forget anything."

"So basically nothing happened?"

"Pretty much." Angel sighed in annoyance.

"I TOLD Jen that this book was a fraud, it was written like forty years ago."

"So I smashed my head against a wall for nothing?"

"I guess?" Devlin listened in with a look on his face that basically said that he was very concerned, and weirded out at the same time.

Angel turned, then stepped back.

"Whoa!" Devlin smiled a little inside, finally, the normal response.

"A dragon faunas?" Duplica looked confused.

"What do you mean by a," Duplica looked, then noticed the tail.

"Um, Duplica?" Both Devlin and Angel asked.

Duplica was not saying anything, the two didn't know what her reaction was going to be.

"Wait, you don't have wings?" Devlin's jaw dropped once more.

"Huh, he doesn't." Devlin sighed, it was either these girls where very brave, or incredibly stupid, and at that point he was willing to bet the answer was both.

"No, that's one of my team mates, she's a phoenix faunas." Both Duplica and Angel looked at each other.

"Did you have any idea that there was that breed of Faunas?" Duplica asked.

"Um, I might have read about it somewhere, no wait, that was a dragon faunas."

"How did you confuse the two?"

"One breathes fire and one is made out of fire?" Angel turned back and out stretched her hand.

"Anyways, I'm going to assume you are a new friend of Duplica's my name is Angel Melody, what's yours?"

"Devlin Midnight." They shook hands.

"So, are you a team member of Duplica's team?"

"Yup, both teammate and body guard." Devlin paused.

"Wait, body guard?"

"Sure am."

"Then why the fuck did you allow her to slam her head against a brick wall?" Angel paused.

"Well, this book said that's what we needed to do to get her memories back, that and I needed to make sure that Rachel didn't burn down the fabric store that we were at a few hours ago." Duplica frowned.

"She actually tried burning it down?"

"Well, no, but she was very tempted to, apparently she hates yarn."

"What about a laser pointer?"

"That to."

"… puppies?"

"She said to not even get her started about those."

"Wait, one more question."

"Is it about mice?"

"Maybe…"

"She hates them with a burning passion."

"The very same passion she tried to use to burn down the fabric store?"

"Yes, if not a lot more, I think she would actually burn the mice if she got the chance."

"Huh." Duplica turned back to Devlin.

"So, besides Fu, where is the rest of your team?"

"Well, Nathanial is probably at the gym as usual, and Cassidy is probably stuffing her face in the café again." Duplica tilted her head out of confusion.

"Does she eat a lot?"

"You could say that." Duplica nodded.

"So, the first chapter didn't work, what did chapter two say Angel?"

"I think it said something about shock therapy."

"As in I need to be shocked a lot?"

"Basically, though I'm not sure how we are going to,"

"Maybe you two should consider a different source." Devlin cut in.

"Why?" Duplica asked.

"Well, to be far I don't think a book that says to make yourself lose several brain cells is a book worth considering."

"But, we don't have any other ideas." Devlin sighed.

"Why don't we go to the café, you two can meet Cassidy, and we can try to help you two get your memories back."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Angel agreed.

"Might as well, sure, let's go." The three started to walk off.

"So, burn down a fabric store?" Angel sighed.

"It's kind of a long story…"


	8. Small Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We get to meet the rest of Team DFNC, and learn a tiny bit more about Duplica's past.

"Wait, so that's why your team member wanted to burn down a fabric store?" Devlin asked.

"It was a spur of the moment." Duplica said, trying to hide under Angel's jacket, to which Angel allowed her to borrow for said purpose.

Currently she and Angel where hanging out with Devlin and Cassidy.

_Cassidy was seventeen years old. She was about 5' 9" and had long blond hair. She wore a black leather jacket with red lining, dark jeans and combat boots._

Duplica was worried what Cassidy's reaction was going to be, she was a Faunas after all, and if what Angel said was true, if it really would offend other Faunas…

Duplica's worried feelings where soon dispelled when she heard Cassidy laugh.

"That's, genius… what was her action? How far did she jump?"

"Uh, she, oh I dunno, pretty far I would say." Cassidy's laugh continued.

"Was she annoyed?" Devlin asked.

"Kind of, I don't know she said it was fine, though she still looked kind of annoyed." Angel sighed.

"I think we should go return this book." Duplica turned to look at Angel.

"Oh, yeah."

"What book?" Angel handed the book over to Cassidy.

"A memory retrieving book, why would you guys need this?"

"Duplica's lost her memories and they are trying to get them back."

"Angel's lost her memories to." Duplica added.

"Oh, and Angel's lost- wait what?"

"We both lost our memories." Devlin paused, then nodded.

"Alright, both of them have lost their memories, and now they are trying to get it back." Cassidy paused, quickly skimming through the first two chapters.

"Extreme trauma? What like smashing your head against a brick wall?" Angel laughed nervously.

"Wait, did you actually try this out?"

"My head." Duplica said unhappily as she held onto her head.

Cassidy frowned.

"Did you remember anything?" Duplica shook her head.

"That book is a lie." Angel said in an annoyed tone.

"Well, if the book is a lie, why not do the exact opposite that the book tells you to?" Cassidy asked.

"What do you mean? The opposite is just not hurting ourselves, right?" Angel reasoned.

"No, you know how it tells you to give extreme trauma to yourself and you will remember something? Well, if that was a lie, why not cause extreme trauma to someone else, maybe that will give you back some memories?"

"Do you think that would work?" Duplica asked.

"Of course not."

"Aw." Duplica sighed out.

"Don't mind Devlin, he's just joking around, of course it will work, if one thing was a lie, then the opposite has to be the truth, right?"

"Are you sure?" Angel was skeptical.

"Well, I guess we won't know until we try it out." Cassidy reasoned.

"Wait, who am I going to beat up?" Cassidy hummed, while slowly looking over to Devlin.

"Um…" Devlin knew where this was headed, and though he was perfectly ready for a fight, he didn't really want to fight Duplica.

It just felt bad to fight a very timid opponent sense they most likely didn't want to fight.

"I don't think we can, may I remind you that beating the crap out of people isn't exactly something that is legal in a café, or anywhere other than a sparing arena." Cassidy paused.

"Well, we can use the sparring arena at the school." Cassidy offered.

"Wait wait whoa whoa hold on a second." The three looked over to Duplica.

"What's up Duplica?" Angel asked.

"Two things, one, I don't want to hurt Devlin at all, hurting anyone that badly is not my thing, two, I'm pretty sure Devlin would kick my ass."

"Well, that's only to be determined if you fight him or not." Duplica shook her head.

"No way, I don't want to hurt someone that much."

"You said you wanted your memories right?"

"Girls calm down, if Duplica doesn't want to fight we shouldn't force her to, I doubt that would help her remember anything." Devlin pointed out.

"Yeah, Devlin's got a good point." Angel agreed.

"Well what else would help?" Cassidy asked.

"Um, well I got some kind of flashback when Angel mentioned a name to me." Devlin and Cassidy looked at each other.

"Let's see here." Cassidy flipped through the book.

"It says nothing about it in the book, therefore it has to be true."

"Let me see." Devlin took the book.

"Hm, Cassidy I think you might want to check your eyes."

"Why Devlin?"

"Because using words and names to spark memories is chapter four."

"Oh, well I wasn't looking at the title names, who does that anyways?" Both Devlin and Angel rose their hands.

"See, Duplica doesn't."

"I don't read a lot of books." Duplica commented.

"Oh, are you more of a tv watcher?"

"I'm more of a sleeper." Cassidy rose an eyebrow.

"You sleep a lot?"

"Yup."

"You're not the kind of person I would normally think would do such a thing." Duplica rose an eyebrow.

"She means actually sleeping, not what you are thinking." Cassidy raised an eyebrow.

"Why do you sleep so much?" Duplica paused.

"Well, I mean, Jen and Angel say it has to do with my semblance."

"What's your semblance."

Duplica drew her katana.

"Watch." Duplica stood up, then the katana glowed in a bright light, morphing into a book, then a hammer, then two tonfa, then back to a katana.

"What the fuck?" Duplica smiled sheepishly as she sheathed her weapon.

"I can copy other people's auras."

"Wow, that's really cool actually, how do you do that?"

"Well, I kind of am only able to do so while in combat. So all the auras I have copied I have got by fighting someone in the life I led before I forgot it."

"Could we possibly use this to help you remember who you used to be?"

"I don't know…"

"That's a really good idea." Duplica turned to Angel.

"You think so?"

"Yeah, think about it, if you had fought James Rot Xiav before, this obviously means you have met him before, but is he friend or foe?" Duplica paused.

"Why does that matter?"

"If we can find more of the Xiav family maybe we can ask about him?" Duplica shrugged her shoulders.

"That's a lot of work for a simple weekend." Both girls were interrupted when Cassidy clapped her hands together.

"Huh?" Both girls looked over to her.

"Me and Devlin have thought of an excellent full proof plan to help you two."

"We have?" Devlin asked.

"It's simple, we will say a lot of names ending with Xiav, and see if you remember any of them."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Devlin and Angel responded.

"How about, Michael Jay Xiav?" Duplica shook her head.

"Nope, I can't remember anything from that name."

"How about Melinda Johnson Xiav?" Duplica shook her head once again.

"Harold Jake Xiav?"

"Nope." Both Devlin and Angel looked over to each other.

"Is Duplica your team's leader?" Angel laughed a little.

"She doesn't seem like the type huh?" Devlin paused.

"No offence, but not at all." Angel smiled a little.

"She's better at telling us to do stuff, rather than fight herself."

"Really…"

"Just because she is too timid to fight by herself doesn't mean she isn't good at planning strategy and telling us how to fight." Devlin nodded.

"Fair enough, though now it seems like we are going to be waiting for these two." Angel laughed a little.

"Well, why not tell Cassidy to stop? You are the leader of your group, right?" Devlin paused.

"How did you know, I didn't tell you or Duplica." Angel shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, lucky guess? Anyways I think our remaining teammates should be joining us later, they are just finishing something important apparently."

"Tell them not to worry or to rush what they are doing, with your leader and Cassidy's little guessing game we are going to be here all day." Angel sighed.

"To true, to true."

…

"Come on, just a little more."

"I don't think, that I can do this, Jen."

"I want no excuses like that, just keep going at it."

"This is too much, way too much."

"Oh quit whining, that's not going to help out at all."

"But, I,"

"But nothing, just keep at it."

"But, this is, to heavy."

"This is so not heavy enough, the bar isn't even bending all that much."

"Though that's with my semblance."

"Then use your semblance." Rachel sighed.

"Fine." Rachel's iris glowed a little, then she was able to put the bar back up to the rest.

"It looks like you still need some work." Jen commented.

"Still need some work? My goodness Jen you are going to make me lift the whole set up and still not be satisfied." Rachel said through some deep breaths.

"Well, if you could do that eventually that would be nice." Rachel sighed.

"Good lord Jen, this whole set up is way too much weight, it would crush me, even with my semblance."

"Then we are just going to have to fix that aren't we?" Rachel shook her head.

"No way, I'm done for today." Jen pouted as she continued to sit on the bar that Rachel was lifting.

"Aw, though we are only half way through the list I compiled." Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Look, I don't think we should use you as extra weight." Jen rose an eyebrow.

"What, an extra hundred something pounds too much for you?"

"No, but we can put in weights in place, anyways something I'm not sure you were aware of, but your ass was basically in my face the whole time." Jen paused.

"But the bar was filled as much as it could be with weights, how else was I going to put more weight on the bar so you could break your old max?" Rachel paused.

"Well next time please don't sit on the bar, not only is your ass in my face, but you looked like you were going to fall over a good few times." Jen sighed.

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiine."

"Why don't you lift some weights?" Jen shook her head.

"No thanks, I've already done my workout for today."

"What was it, sitting on a bar?" Jen shook her head.

"While you were busy with your other workouts I was meditating."

"Okay, but how is that working out again?"

"It helps me power up my semblance, yours is power, so lifting weights helps you, meditating helps me power up my defense semblance." Rachel rose an eyebrow.

"You were hitting your head against the wall in the bathroom so you could make sure your semblance is powerful enough, didn't you?"

There was a pause between the two.

"In the end I could feel nothing." Rachel sighed.

"Sometimes I worry about you Jen, sometimes I worry about you." Jen frowned.

"Well, this is how you power up your semblance, this is how I power up mine."

"I wonder how Angel and Duplica power up their semblances."

"For Angel I'm assuming that she meditates or reads a lot, maybe Duplica charges and trains her semblance, or semblances in this case, by sleeping?" Rachel shrugged her shoulders.

"I thought she slept a lot was because her spirit chi isn't enough to handle all of the semblances she's copied."

"Who knows, even she doesn't know."

"Amnesia tends to do such things to people yes."

"Thanks captain obvious, well anyways I am going to go use the bathroom."

"Don't go bonking your head again."

"No worries, I won't." With that Jen walked off.

Rachel sighed.

"Sometimes I worry about her." Rachel looked around the gym, though something caught her eye.

Some man was lifting quite a lot of weight.

Rachel sighed.

"I wonder how much he could lift if he had my semblance." The guy looked up, and noticed Rachel looking at him.

Rachel quickly looked away, hoping she wasn't noticed.

"Hey." Rachel paused, then slowly looked up.

"Um, hi."

"What's up, I saw you looking over here, the name's Nathaniel by the way, what's yours?" Rachel paused, getting a better look at the guy.

_Nathanial is about 6'3", muscular build with broad shoulders. He has short red hair and has small scars running the length of both arms. His outfit is a white shirt and pants with orange lining around the shoulders and knees. He has a short sleeve zip up over the shirt and white and orange combat boots._

"My name is Rachel." Nathanial nodded, then smiled.

"So, was there any reason why you where looking over to me?" Rachel paused.

"I was wondering how much you can lift is all."

"I can lift quite a lot, wanna see?"

"Um,"

"Come on, let me show you." Nathanial walked back to where he was working out.

Rachel sighed before walking over.

"So, this is how much I can lift." Rachel nodded.

"Impressive."

"So, how much can you lift? Should I take a few of these plates off?" Rachel shook her head.

"Put a couple more plates on if anything." Nathanial paused.

"Well okay, if you insist." Nathanial put some more plates on.

"Are you sure you can lift all of this weight?"

"I'm positive."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Well, if you think you can lift this much, then go ahead, just let it be known that if you cannot lift this much, I can't really lift it back up to help you sense its more weight than I can lift."

"I'm well aware of this."

"Alright, well if you think you are ready, then go ahead." Rachel lifted the bar, the bar went down to her chest area.

"That went down faster than it should have." Nathanial commented.

"Well, this is really heavy."

"I told you not to put that much weight onto the bar, I mean look at how much the bar is bending." Rachel sighed, iris's beginning to glow.

"Huh?" With that Rachel was lifting the bar, no problem.

"Wow, impressive, does your semblance help you with this?" Rachel nodded.

Nathanial chuckled.

"Of course it would, my semblance is similar, mine is all about strength, I'm assuming yours is the same?"

"Kind of, it makes sure that I can lift a lot, my hits are stronger, but also makes sure that I can take even the heaviest of hits without moving, doesn't make it not hurt though, cause it still kills." Nathanial nodded.

"That's interesting."

"Hey." Both looked to see Jen walk up to them.

"I thought you said you were done lifting for today." Rachel paused, then put the bar back up.

"Yeah, sorry I got into a conversation." Jen paused, then looked over to Nathanial.

"Oh, hey, sorry I didn't see you there."

"That's fine, the name's Nathanial by the way, you can just call me Nate if you want." Jen nodded.

"Okay." Jen looked over to the bar.

"So, can you lift as much as Rachel?"

"We lift similar amounts yes." Jen nodded.

"Well, looks like Rachel's got herself someone to lift with now." Nate raised an eyebrow.

"You're not lifting weights with her?" Jen shook her head.

"I don't really lift." Nate rose an eyebrow.

"Well now, maybe we should help change that?"

"As long as no one sits on the bar we'll be good."

"Wait, what?"

"Nothing, it's kind of a long story…"

…

"Maybe, oh, how about…"

"Give it up Cassidy, it's been at least a couple hours." Devlin insisted.

"The fact that you never said the same guess twice was very impressive though, I would have said the same thing roughly ten times, and that would be after three guesses in between each of them." Angel commented.

"Oh, how about Lop Dan Xiav?" Duplica shook her head, now finishing her sixth cup of coffee.

"Damn it, I'm running out of ideas."

"Then stop."

"Come on Devlin, we need to help these two, so about Frank Gorm Xiav?" Duplica paused.

"Wait, say that middle name again?"

"Gorm?"

"… I think I know that name."

"Sweet, we're getting somewhere! How about Karl Gorm Xiav?" Duplica shook her head, though that name was somehow very familiar to her.

"I think that name is enough for me right now, thanks Cassidy." Cassidy nodded.

"Glad to help, so, do you normally drink that much coffee?" Both Devlin and Angel looked at each other.

"That actually helped?" Devlin asked Angel.

Angel shrugged her shoulders.

"To be far it was in the book."

"But so was hurting yourselves."

"Well, not everything works for everyone."

"Fair enough." The two looked back to Cassidy and Duplica.

"Oh man, be right back, bathroom!" Duplica got up and quickly walked off.

"How much coffee did she drink?" Devlin asked.

"Roughly six cups." Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"She told me so anyways."

"Oh man, she's going to be in the bathroom for a while then."

"Yup." Angel nodded.

She was pleased that Duplica knew something about the name Gorm, though now was the process of trying to find out exactly what about the name did she remember?

Was it because it was someone she knew and loved?

Or was it maybe the exact opposite of love?

Angel sighed.

"Something wrong Angel?" Angel looked over to Devlin

"Oh, nothing's wrong." Angel said, soon smiling and shaking her head.

Devlin nodded, then went back to talking to Cassidy.

'I hope Gorm is a good memory for Duplica, if it's a bad one I'll have to keep my eyes peeled for this "Gorm" character.'


	9. Spirit Chi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While classes are in order, Angel and Duplica's employers are hatching a plan, what is the plan about, and how will it affect our heroes, or, heroins?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we learn about an idea I put into the story in depth, if you want to know what the thing is, well, read the chapter's title.

"And I'm telling you that two two's makes four, there for I still won over your three." Duplica said to Angel.

"But you were only allowed to put one card down."

"Says who?"

"Says the rules." Duplica sighed.

"This isn't over yet Angel."

"You girls done arguing yet?" Jen asked.

"Around about yeah, why?"

"Well, we are just about to walk into our class." Jen pointed out as the four walked into the class room.

"Who's the guy meditating on the teachers desk?"

"I think that is the teacher Duplica."

"What? No way our other teachers weren't meditating on their desks."

"Well, either way he's pretty zened out, if he is the teacher I hope he knows that class should be starting now." Rachel commented.

There was a pause.

"Well, he's still going at it, he must be really zoned out." Angel commented.

"Hey, um, Mr. teacher sir, isn't it time to start class?" The man didn't answer Duplica's question.

Duplica sighed.

"Yup, he's out of it."

"Well, should we wake him up?"

"No, it's dangerous to wake someone up if they are this deep into an aura trance." Angel and Duplica curiously looked at Jen.

"An aura trance?"

"It's an advanced stage of meditating, you can somewhat control wither or not you are in the state or not, you can control it more if you get into an aura trance enough times, or if you are in it long enough."

"So, can we help wake him up at all? Angel, go poke him."

"No way, what if something bad happens?"

"Come on, please?"

"If you want to see if it wakes him up so badly why don't you do it?" Duplica pouted.

"Nope, not poking him." Duplica in turn frowned.

"Fine." Duplica got up.

She walked over to the man.

"Hmmmm, sir? Sir, can you hear me?"

"He can't, he's too deep into meditation." Duplica sighed.

"I thought so." Duplica stuck a finger out.

"Well, here goes, boop!" Duplica poked the man on the nose.

"He's still asleep?"

"You'll need to actually hit him, not poke him on the nose."

"Right, well, Angel?"

"No way." Duplica sighed.

"Well, I'm sure as heck not hitting him." Duplica walked back to her seat.

"Well, how are we going to wake the professor up then?" Duplica paused.

"Hm, how about if I…" Duplica's voice trailed off as she took some pepper out.

"Wait, do you plan on, Duplica no." Angel said sternly.

"Welp, time to get yelled at!" Duplica got out of her seat once again.

"Duplica no, don't."

"Hold on Angel, this might just make him wake up." Angel looked over to Jen.

"Really?"

"Maybe, I've never seen someone try to use pepper before."

"Huh, wait, Duplica where did you get the pepper anyways?"

"… would it make sense if I told you I wanted to make a pepper spray gun?" Angel paused.

"How would that even work?"

"If I knew that answer to that I would have been carrying a pepper spray gun around with me now wouldn't I?" Duplica put some pepper on her hand.

"Okay, time to put this theory to the test." Duplica put the pepper under the man's nose.

The man took a whiff, then sneezed.

The man's eyes opened, soon scanning the room, first to the desks, then the students, then the exit, then to the girl who had some pepper under his nose.

"You put pepper under my nose?" Duplica nervously nodded.

The man paused.

"Thank you. That was the deepest aura trance I have been in as of recent." The man looked around once more.

"Oh, has class started?" The class nodded their heads.

"Huh, strange, I thought the bell would wake me up. Well, anyways hello class, this is the first time we've met, so introductions are in order. My name is Professor Bodhisattva, and welcome to Chi Studies, in this class we educate you students all about the necessity that is spirit chi. So, does anyone want to guess, or tell me what spirit chi is?" Jen rose her hand.

Bodhisattva looked over to Jen.

"Spirit chi is the energy source for every huntsman's semblance. That being said whenever we use our semblance our chi starts to drain. Once we lose all our spirit chi two things happen, one is that we are not allowed to use our semblance anymore, the second thing is that strangely our shields will stop working, leaving us exposed to enemy attacks."

"That is correct," Angel curiously looked over to Duplica as the teacher continued on with his lecture.

She smiled a little, Duplica was pulling off a classic thing she would normally do when someone was boring her, and she couldn't be on her scroll.

She was drawing.

"You know you should be paying attention, right?" Angel whispered to Duplica.

Duplica jumped a little.

"Seriously, did that scare you?"

"Kind of, why did you startle me?"

"Never mind, what are you drawing?" Angel looked at the sheet of paper.

"I'm drawing every semblance I have had before I forgot my memories."

"Do you think that will help you remember something?"

"Possibly, I mean I don't know, maybe if I draw them out I'll remember whoever this 'Gorm' character is."

"Huh, that's a good idea."

"The only problem right now is that I can't remember anything, and I have drawn half of the semblances I have."

"Try drawing the weapons as well."

"Why?"

"Well, the weapons are half the aura right? The other half is the semblance, and with that in mind what kind of idea is it to try and remember something by only recalling half of the auras?"

"Huh, good point, I'll draw the other stuff right after." Duplica continued to draw.

Roughly after twenty minutes she saw a hand lightly take one of the papers she drew on.

"Hey." Duplica looked up.

"Hello." Bodhisattva responded, then looked at the papers.

"Interesting, we have quite the artist here, so, Duplica was the name I believe, what are these pictures of?" Duplica paused, soon blushing when she realized all eyes must be on her at this point.

"Um, these are pictures of my auras." The classroom was surrounded in whispers.

"You mean your aura, not auras, right?" Duplica shook her head.

"My original aura doesn't have a weapon, though the semblance allows me to," Duplica looked down at her desk, a katana soon forming where she was looking.

The katana quickly turned into a tome, then two tonfa, then disappeared.

"Copy other people's auras, currently I have around twelve auras, not including my own aura." Bodhisattva paused.

The classes whispering grew.

"An aura naturally drains a person's energy over time, which is why we grow tired, but having roughly thirteen of them all running at once, you must sleep a lot, seeing as that is the main way we can regenerate our spirit chi." Duplica yawned in response.

"That settles it, do you know how to increase your spirit chi?" Duplica shook her head.

"My, sweet Ohm you must be sleeping around fourteen plus hours a day."

"How did you know?" Bodhisattva chuckled.

"I've seen a couple cases similar, though in the end it was that one aura was enough to drain someone's energy severally, anyways in order to increase your chi you can do a few things. You can use your chi to the point where you completely burn out of all of it, you can drink some types of teas that help increase your chi, or you could meditate, all of these methods work, it's up to you to choose which one you will want to use, if you have thirteen auras you might want to do all of the above, that way you can build up a large amount of chi, and still have enough to be fully effective in combat." Duplica nodded.

"Okay, thanks for the advise."

"No problem, okay so anyways…"

…

"Platinum sir!" Gold saluted.

Platinum hummed in response, he was currently looking over some blueprints.

"Sir?" Gold walked up to Prime.

"What are,"

"Reviewing some old projects." Gold paused.

"Are you talking about project Epsilon?" Prime paused, then nodded.

"We have successfully created Omega and Gamma, with the price of Alpha and Delta, but in the end we managed to create two of the prototypes." Gold nodded.

"Indeed, so now what shall we do, should we advance with the project?" Prime shook his head.

"Not yet, you know that we need to wait." Gold sighed.

"I know, but shit why does this have to take so long?"

"Recon takes a while, you best have the patience to wait."

"Of course I do, it's just sucks to wait around, my androids are itching for a fight, their programming was made for that, not just standing around."

"Your little bots will have their time, we must wait until the right time to strike."

"Of course sir."

"You do know where we are going to strike, yes?"

"Of course, we are attacking those two places at the same time." Prime chuckled.

"Excellent, everything is going according to plan."

"But sir, what if the program glitches again."

"Oh, you need not worry about that, the program is full proof, though even if a glitch were to happen, I've got it handled." Prime slid a remote over to Gold.

Gold chuckled.

"Always thinking of everything, that's why you're the boss."

"Get back to work Gold, you can kiss ass another time."

…

"So, did drawing help you remember anything?" Cassidy asked Duplica.

The team was currently eating with DFNC.

"Not really, I didn't get anything from it."

"Was it in the book?"

"Hm, I don't know, what it Angel?" Angel shook her head.

"I didn't see anything about it in the part of the book I read so far."

"I wonder what else would work…"

"I might have an idea." Jen commented.

"What's the idea Jen?" Cassidy asked.

"Well, the use of meditation is not limited to building spirit chi, meditating can do several things for a person, including finding one's self."

"So, you mean to say that if Duplica meditates she might be able to find out more about this Gorm character?"

"That's what she just said, my Ohm Devlin do you even listen?" Fu snapped.

"It's a possibility." Jen replied.

"Hm, so, how do I meditate?" Duplica asked.

"You have never meditated before?" Rachel asked.

"Not to my knowledge no." Rachel nodded.

"Well we can show you later, I don't think the lunch room is a good place to demonstrate." Duplica nodded.

"So, what's the plan after this?" Angel asked.

"Nothing really, our classes are over for the day, I was thinking of taking a quick nap then try out this meditation thing."

"Anyone willing to go to the gym after this?" Nate asked.

"Rachel might want to go." Nate rose an eyebrow

"You lot aren't going to join us?" Duplica and Angel shook their heads.

"I'm not much of a weight lifter." Angel replied.

"Weights are so not my thing." Duplica agreed.

Nate sighed, and then nodded.

"Suit yourself, though for safety's sake I would suggest building some muscle on those bodies of yours." Duplica hugged herself in insecurity.

"I've got some muscle." Angel commented.

"I've got Rachel's semblance, so that counts for something, right?"

"It still wouldn't hurt to have some muscle." Nate replied, beginning to flex.

Angel rolled her eyes.

"Well, getting back on topic, the rest of us are free for the rest of the day, right?" Angel asked.

The group nodded their heads.

"Alright, if that's the case then we should all go to our team's dorm room after this."

"Why hang out there?" Fu asked.

"Well, Duplica needs to meditate."

"And take a nap."

"… And take a nap." Fu rose an eyebrow.

"Those are the kind of things you don't want people to be around though, so why the hell should we follow her?"

"Well, I mean if you guys don't want to follow her, then so be it."

"Why are you following her?"

"As her bodyguard I need to stay by her, just in case something bad happens." Fu rolled her eyes.

"Bodyguard, more like lover." Duplica turned her head in curiosity, stopping a conversation she was having with Devlin.

"Wait, what?"

"Nothing Duplica, this doesn't really concern you." Duplica paused at Angel's comment.

"If you insist." Duplica looked back over to Devlin, then stood up.

"Well, lunch was nice and all, but I'm tired, so, nap time." Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Wait a moment, you still need to put the plate and tray away." Duplica turned around.

"Eh, you can do that, right?" Angel sighed.

"Lazy ass."

"Seriously, my ass isn't lazy."

"What does your ass do then?" Cassidy asked.

Duplica noticed the wording of what she said, then blushed.

"Well, fine, my ass is lazy, but I don't even pick stuff up with my ass." Angel laughed a little.

"Fair enough." Angel grabbed hers and Duplica's stuff.

"Come on lazy ass, let's get you to bed."

"At least my legs aren't lazy."

"Eh, that's debatable."

"Debatable?"

"How many times have you gotten me to carry because you were how you put it, 'too tired to walk?"

"… Don't make me climb into your arms right now."

"But, but, how I'm currently holding onto both yours and my stuff."

"I'll find a way Angel, I'll find a way." Jen and Rachel smiled to each other as the two walked off.

"Seriously, when are those two going to go out?" Nathaniel looked over to Rachel.

"Why?"

"Are you kidding, me?"

"No, why?"

"They are so cute together." Jen commented.

Nate rose an eyebrow.

"I guess?"

"Never mind him, he's kind of oblivious, yeah, they would make a cute couple I feel." Cassidy agreed.

"Our room's open for whenever they date you know, for those kinds of nights." Devlin joked around.

"We only have four beds genius." Fu commented.

"Keep talking like that and you'll end up sharing a bed with one of them." Fu shot Devlin a death glare.

Devlin nervously looked away.

"Or maybe not, way to dead pan a joke Fu." Fu's glare intensified.

"That's not funny."

"Whoa hold on, I thought we would be sleeping on the floor, not in one of the other's beds." Rachel commented.

"I don't think we would need to sleep in someone else's room to begin with."

"Jen please don't tell me that you plan on sleeping through that."

"Who says they are going to do that when they have roommates? They would both put that in consideration." Rachel paused.

"Hey yeah, that is a good point…"

"We should probably go back, so when Duplica wakes up we can help her with meditation."

"Eh, I'll let Angel know to voice message me when Duplica wakes up, I might go to the library, possibly try to find out more about this battle Duplica remembered, or maybe something about this Gorm person, maybe someone of this person's family is famous, so maybe we can trigger memories by finding out more about this person's ancestors?"

"Possibly, I guess I'll tag along, anyone else wanna come with?"

The others shook their heads.

"Alright, suit yourselves." Rachel and Jen got up and walked off.

"They left their plates behind." Devlin noted.

"So, do you think we will find anything in the library?" Rachel asked Jen.

"Well, one can be hopeful, right?"

"So, is that a no?"

"Well, I don't think we'll find anything about the battle, sure, but maybe something about this Gorm character."

"Why would we find out more about this Gorm person sooner than the battle?"

"Simple, there has to be more than one Gorm in this world, so if we find someone with the last name Gorm maybe Duplica will remember something by reading more about the info we find."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

"Yup, we will try to find as many books referring to either subject, then bring them back for Duplica to analyze when she wakes up."

 


	10. Fatal Flashback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Duplica was taking her nap, something happened, memories had returned to her, though it wasn't really a nice memory, leaving her with more questions then answers.

"Are you sure we need to do this?"

"Positive."

"I mean, a combat sim is one thing, but the real thing? I'm not sure if I'm ready for this Angel."

"Ready or not we need to finish this job, the boss is counting on us." Duplica sighed.

"Fiiine, where is the target?"

"I'm not sure, the boss just said that the man is in this city."

"Do we know where in the city?"

"Well, he said he might be in the weapons shop, if not he's outside the walls of the kingdom, giving our soldiers and nearby villagers some more weapons and the like." Duplica paused.

"So, there are two places to check?"

"Well, three really."

"Shush, things don't need to be more difficult."

"Well, they kind of are." Duplica sighed.

"My goodness, why do we only have a day to complete this job?"

"Hey." Both girls looked to the source of the noise, it looked like a huntsman was talking to them.

"Hey." Angel responded.

"Was there something you two ladies needed?"

"Well, we were looking for the weapon's smith."

"Ah, well you see the problem is that he is currently not at the shop." Angel frowned a little, and sighed in discontent.

"But, I heard he was handing out his goods to the local villages, if you want I can escort you two over to the Emmerin Village."

"There's no need for that, we can protect ourselves." Angel explained as she showed the man the two's weapons.

"Still, that's two versus a whole unrelenting force of Grimm, are you sure you don't need a third person to help?"

"We are positive, though thank you for the offer." Duplica replied.

The man paused, he was personally worried for these two girls, they couldn't be anything more than huntresses in training, maybe sophomores, but most likely freshmen, how do they expect to be able to hold off a horde of Grimm all by themselves?

He couldn't insist on getting someone to help them anymore, for both girls had turned and left at this point.

…

"Alright, this should be the place." Angel said as she reloaded her parasol.

"Sheesh, could they have put this base any further away from the kingdom?" Duplica asked through a few breathes.

"Sure they could, but why would you want that?"

"I don't need your sass right now Angel."

"You give me a lot of that you know." Duplica rolled her eyes.

"You're only helping my point."

"Great, now come on, we need to find this man remember?"

"Right, we should probably hide then."

"Where?"

"The trees, we can use the trees as a means to hide."

"Alright, but if any Grimm show up leave the killing to me."

"Are you sure I can leave the killing to you?" Duplica paused.

"Fine, just use your killjoynata then."

"See, this is so much sass you give me."

"It's your job to take my sass."

"It's my job to protect you, not take your sass."

"Well that are you gonna do about it? You can't hurt me in any way, you would be defying your own duty." Angel paused.

"Ohm, damn it not only are you a sassy one, your also smart." Duplica giggled a little.

"Come on Angel, we should go scout now."

"Right." The two ran over to a tree.

"Okay, so, what do you see?" Angel asked.

"Um, some people, some buildings, some animals, awwww, that puppy is so cute." Angel rolled her eyes.

"Focus on our target Duplica."

"Do you even know what he looks like?" Angel paused.

"The boss said we'd know him when we see him, I don't know what he meant by that, maybe he has some kind of bright outfit?" Duplica shrugged her shoulders.

"Who knows, maybe he's got like a car with him?"

"Well, why would you guess that?"

"Maybe because there is a car in the middle of the village?" Angel paused.

"Huh, so there is."

"Keep your eyes peeled Angel." Angel looked behind them, then jumped down and stabbed clean through a Beowolf.

"Likewise." Duplica paused.

"Well, it looks like the man is about to leave."

"Alright, let's attack."

"No."

"What, why not?"

"Simple, we already need to fight him, do we really want to fight a full village, along with the man who we are trying to kill to begin with?" Angel paused.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Duplica smiled a little before activating Angel's aura.

"Simple, we run after the van, ahead of it even." Angel rose an eyebrow.

"I've got a plan."

…

Chris sighed as continued driving down the pathway.

"Thank god these Grimm seem to be smart enough to not try to attack me. This job though, I mean, I've been spending my whole life building weapons, but, this time around, not for the family?" Chris sighed once more.

The only thing that stopped his momentary thoughts was a loud scream.

Chris slammed on the brakes.

"Was that…" Chris paused, soon pulling out a shotgun.

"I might as well so investigate, maybe I can save that poor soul." Chris pumped the shotgun, soon pursuing the scream he heard.

Chris ran past one last tree, though when he saw made him stop.

"Oh, oh no." There was some cute and, unfortunately, dead cyan haired girl on the floor.

Chris frowned as he saw the crimson that now stained the poor girl's dress.

"My Ohm, shit, I was, too late." Chris turned as he heard a low growl.

"And now it seems like I'm on the receiving end." Chris pointed his shotgun at the first Beowolf he saw.

He heard a growl as a Beowolf went to attack the girl.

Chris's eyebrows furrowed before he fired at the creature.

"I will not let you feed." Chris unloaded around him.

A Beowolf jumped up to land on him, though Chris jumped to his left, turning his shotgun into its mallet form.

He swung the weapon down, the built in shotgun on the face of the mallet fired, exploding the Beowolf's head. Chris used the kickback to knock himself higher into the air.

He threw his mallet, it hit another Beowolf, the shotgun fired once more, exploding another head.

The man used his semblance once more to manipulate the kickback so the mallet flew back at him.

He caught the handle, then landed, slamming into one more Beowolf.

"For the honor of my family I will protect this girl to the end!"

…

Angel sighed as she place another dust crystal under Chris's car.

"I really hope Duplica doesn't get attacked by the Grimm while her plan is in motion." Angel taped a wind crystal on the backside of one of the tires.

"I mean, this is a smart idea, though I know she will shout in surprise if a Beowolf or something goes to attack her." Angel put one more stun crystal in the hood.

"I hope she's safe."

…

"And down you go." Chris turned his mallet back into a shotgun as the final Beowolf fell.

"My goodness, just how many of you fuckers do I need to slay before you get the message, I'm not going to die, nor are you getting your meal today?" The smith reloaded his shotgun before looking back to the body.

"Great, I should probably get this girl back, the police or huntsmen should know what to do with her, poor girl." Chris went to pick the girl up, though when he touched her, she jumped a little.

"Huh?" The girl coughed, which was upsetting to the man sense she started to cough up some blood.

"My god, your alive?" The girl looked up to the man.

"I, I…" The man smiled a little before picking the girl up.

"It's alright, you're going to be fine."

"O-ow." Chris paused, slowly moving the position he was holding her to something more comfortable.

"Are you okay now?" The girl shook her head.

"What's wrong?"

"My, my tome." Chris looked over to her book.

"Ah, hold on." He bent down and grabbed it, soon putting it on top of the girl.

"There, is everything okay now?" The girl paused before weakly nodding.

"Alright, then try to stay awake, I'm going to get you to safety." The man started running back to his car.

Duplica slowly ripped a page of the tome off, and lightly left go of it, letting it slowly float onto a tree.

Duplica let out a soft groan.

"What?" Duplica shifted a little in Chris's arms.

"Just hold on, we're almost there." Chris ran up to his car.

"You're going to be okay, just hold on." The man opened the side door, lightly placing Duplica in the seat.

"Hold on, I need to make a phone call." The man took out his phone while he got into the car.

He started to drive back to the city.

"Hello, yes uh I have a severely injured girl with me, I'm outside the walls. Alright, thanks, bye." The man looked over to Duplica.

She was dozing off.

"Try to stay awake." Duplica shifted a little, opening her eyes once more.

"I know it's hard, but your ordeal is almost over." Chris looked back to the road.

"I just wanna sleep." Duplica weakly let out.

"I figured, but just wait until we get to the hospital, everything will be okay then."

Chris continued driving for ten more minutes.

"Were getting close to the walls, just hang in there." The man looked over to where Duplica was.

She was missing.

"What the?" The car then exploded as several variants of dust barraged the insides of the car.

"Nice work Angel." Duplica stated as she changed into a new dress.

"It's all going according to your rather ingenious plan." Angel replied as she reloaded her parasol, her foot on the paper of the tome that Duplica used to teleport out of the car.

"Did you get his aura?"

"Copied it while he was carrying me, it was almost too easy." Angel frowned.

"I wonder why the boss wanted us to kill him anyways."

"I have no clue." The two got down from the trees and walked over to the wreckage.

"Angel, extinguish the fire."

"As you wish." Duplica looked into the smoke as Angel got rid of the fire.

"Hey, wait, stop." Angel did so.

"Use some wind magic to get rid of the smoke." Before they could remove all the smoke, there was a shotgun pump coming from behind Angel.

Duplica turned just as the man fired.

"Angel!" Duplica quickly changed auras in order to protect herself with a barrier.

"Ha, that was a foolish move for the both of us." Duplica looked curiously at the man.

"For instance, it was foolish of me to just bring you back to the car when your act wasn't entirely convincing, and it was foolish of you to try and raid my car, not only with explosions, but right after I dispensed my goods." Chris turned his weapon into mallet form.

"I think it would only be accurate if I bring at least one of you back with me, I did tell the huntsmen after all." Duplica paused.

"That means."

"They will be here soon, now what are you going to do Ms. Theif?" Duplica frowned before switching back to her aura and taking the hilt of the chain sword.

"What do you expect to do with that simple decorative piece?" Duplica smirked.

"Simple decorative piece?"

"Indeed, that is a chain not a blade." Duplica pressed the red button that was on the cross bar of the hilt.

The chains extended parts of a blade out of each link.

Duplica pressed the yellow button on the cross bar.

The blade bits connected together, forming a full on blade.

Duplica quickly back to her third aura.

Chris frowned.

"That tome…"

Duplica ripped five pages out of it.

Chris frowned.

"How dare you defile that tome!" Duplica changed auras just in time to block a blow from Chris's mallet.

The shotgun blast hit the blade, stunning Duplica and knocking the sword down.

Chris used the kickback to spin around in quick velocity, smacking Duplica across the face.

Duplica shouted in surprise as she was knocked back into a tree.

Chris ran up and hit her in the stomach.

The force was intense enough to leave a nice sized dent in the tree. Duplica fell forward, and was slammed down by one more attack.

"And now," Chris put a foot on Duplica's back.

"You die." Chris lifted the hammer, though it was quickly blocked by a parasol base.

"What?" The stick pulled back, then he kept someone punch him in the back with an unrelenting force. Sense the parasol didn't move Chris's mallet didn't move, successfully damaging Chris's arm.

He felt the ground suddenly rise under him, then stop, though thanks to inertia he continued upward.

He spun to look at the ground, but there was no one there.

Chris was confused, but an attack from behind him told him where the thing went.

The attacked was powered up by supposedly wind dust, which was why he slammed into the risen ground.

"You will keep your hands off of Duplica." Angel said, glare clear and present.

"So you want to die first?" Angel's glare increased.

"Go head, try me, see what happens." The two paused, then ran at each other.

"Ow, my stomach." Duplica groaned as she got back up. She looked over to the fight at hand, then to her pages.

"Angel!"

"Ma'am!"

"Weapon!"

"But,"

"Just trust me!"

"Alright." Duplica ran over.

Angel blocked one more attack, then used some wind magic to get the man off track.

Duplica ran forward.

"Here." Duplica changed back to her third aura as she grabbed Angel's weapon. She jumped and rolled behind Chris.

"Time to get serious." Duplica used the wind dust infused in her dress to change her normal slash into a wind slash.

She swiped forward, sending a harsh wind flying forward.

Chris was blown back, though Duplica quickly teleported over to the first page.

She kicked Chris in the face, then stabbed forward.

Chris easily side stepped and smacked Duplica across the face once more. Duplica was knocked back a bit.

Before Chris could pursue Angel advanced, quickly grabbing her weapon and blocking once more.

Angel looked over to another page.

"Duplica."

"Right."

Angel used some wind magic to knock Chris towards the page.

Duplica teleported and extended her fist, punching Chris across the face.

Duplica quickly kicked forward over to the third page. Chris knew what was going on, then went to hit at the page, though Duplica did not appear.

Chris was stunned, though being hit on the head brought him back to Earth. He turned, then caught Angel's parasol.

He hit Angel with the weapon, then grabbed the weapon once her grip loosened a little. He tossed the weapon away, then went to choke her.

"Stop right there." Chris turned, only to be slashed at by the parasol once again. Chris was knocked back, his chi was almost drained.

Chris got back up and tossed his hammer at Duplica.

Angel quickly grabbed her weapon and jumped in the way, the parasol part was opened. The hammer hit, the impact was enough to knock Angel back to the floor.

"We're not done yet!" Duplica jumped forward, quickly kicking Chris back into the fourth page.

She teleported, though was smacked back by Chris's hammer.

Angel jumped forward, stabbing forward and knocking Chris over to the last page.

Duplica teleported over to the page, quickly changing her aura to Angel's.

She jumped, swinging downward. Chris was knocked downward.

Angel ran up, ready to strike.

"No." Angel looked curious.

"Go get some Grimm, kill them, bring them here ASAP." Angel paused, then nodded.

Duplica readied the blade.

"Well, at least Prime will be proud of what I did." Duplica stabbed toward.

She sighed.

"Alright, time to make this look convincing…"

…

"Morning sleeping beauty." Angel commented as Duplica opened her eyes.

"Wha?" Duplica asked.

"You've been napping for two hours, did you get a good rest?" Duplica paused.

"Um, yeah, I would say so…"

"What, is something wrong?" Duplica looked up at Angel.

"Um, well, do you promise not to tell the others?"

"I guess… why what's up?" Duplica paused.

"I had a flash back." Angel smiled.

"You did, oh good! What was it about, was it a good flashback?" Duplica frowned, then sat up.

Angel sat herself on the other side of the bed.

"I'm going to assume that frown means it was a bad memory?"

"Well…"

"What, what did you remember. Remember Duplica, I'm your close friend and bodyguard, you can and should tell me anything that's bothering you." Duplica sighed.

"I don't want to believe that I had a flashback."

"Why not?"

"Well, in this flashback we kind of…"

"Wait, we, as in you and me?"

"Yeah."

"What did we do in your dream?" Duplica paused.

"Flashback, and I don't really want to say."

"Are you sure?"

"… We killed some guy."

"Well that's not that… what?"

"We killed someone." Angel paused.

"As in you and me ended someone's life?" Duplica nodded.

"This man had the same mallet I have to… does that mean…" Angel sighed.

"Do you remember why we killed him?" Duplica paused.

"You said something about the boss." Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Why would Mr. Prime tell us to kill someone? I mean, he's pretty nice, and doesn't really ask us to do to much, but never murder." Duplica paused.

"I have no clue, maybe we had a boss before Mr. Prime?"

"That is a possibility." Duplica sighed.

"But, to kill a man for seemingly no reason? I don't know how I should feel about this."

"Did the flashback yield any details as to why we did so?" Duplica shook her head.

"We were just told to do so by whoever our boss was." Angel frowned, then hugged Duplica lightly.

"I understand you feel unsure about the motive, and our willingness to do be ordered to do so,"

"We killed a man Angel, killed, not fight to beat, killed. Murder isn't a light topic Angel." Angel tightened the hug a little, and added some light heat to her body in order to keep Duplica warm.

"I understand that, but maybe whoever we used to work for was ratted out by us? I doubt we would have been fine with this happening to us, I feel like we would say something about this." Duplica paused.

"I'm still freaked out about this." Duplica said through a yawn.

"Maybe I need some more sleep." Angel squeaked in surprise when Duplica went to lay back down.

Duplica giggled a little.

"You squeak huh?" Angel blushed a little.

"Duplica, I kind of need to get out."

"Climb over me then."

"But, then I'll hit my head on my bed." Duplica paused, then shivered a bit.

"I'm cold."

"How, you're under two warm covers, and I was warming you up." Duplica shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, cold flashes?" Angel sighed, then tossed her jacket up to her bed.

"Then what would you have me do?"

"I don't know, maybe hug me again?" Angel paused, blush still present, but now for different reasons.

"Huh?" Duplica rolled her eyes, then lightly pulled Angel next to her.

"Whoa, Duplica." Duplica ignored Angel as she lightly hugged her.

"You look like of tired as well. Come on, please?" Angel sighed, blush intensifying.

"What's wrong?"

"Um, I don't normally wear clothing to bed…" Duplica paused.

"Hm, that's interesting." Duplica moved and shifted under the covers, and soon her undergarments and dress was lazily thrown onto the floor.

"Duplica?" Duplica giggled a little.

"I don't normally wear clothing to bed either." Angel paused.

Duplica noticed the blush.

"Oh, come on, we're both girls, and we're both secure enough in our sexuality to be naked next to each other, right?"

Angel paused, blush not really going away.

"Do you need help or something?" Angel paused, then slowly took off her dress and undergarments as well.

"That's the ticket." Duplica lightly grabbed the clothing articles and lazily threw it onto the floor.

"But."

"Eh, those where dirty anyways, we can clean it later." Duplica went up to warmly snuggle up to Angel.

"You fell really nice." Duplica said contently, soon falling asleep.

Angel paused, how awkward was this?

Not only did she like who she was supposed to be protecting, but now she is sleeping with her, naked none the less.

Angel's blush was only ended when she fell asleep, listening to Duplica's soft breathes.

"I think this is enough books for Duplica to read on."

"Yeah, who knew Gorm was such a popular last time?"

"I know right?" Jen asked before opening the door.

"Hey Angel, is Duplica, oh…"

"What is it Jen?"

"Why don't you come in to look?"

"Hold on, these are a lot of books." Rachel walked over to her desk and put down the books.

"What's up, oh, oh…"

"Well, at least they did it before we came back." Jen commented.

"Sheesh, look at how messily they threw their clothing on the ground."

"Hey at least they made sure they were both covered by the sheets."

"Hm, so do you think we might need to take Devlin's offer?"

"Maybe, though I doubt we will need to."

"Jen, sometimes I worry about you, you know that?"


	11. Jackpot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the group has some down time plenty of things could happen, for example Duplica would get roughly thirty more auras to copy, though the most pressing matter is this, are Duplica and Angel going out? Are lesbians confirmed for this story or not? Why is this a big question? I won't be able to answer this until 2AM ish, when I wrote this chapter.

"I told you it was going to happen." Cassidy commented.

"And Jen is still not worried about it." Rachel replied.

"I just don't see what the problem is, it's not like we were in the room, you know?" Devlin chuckled.

"Hey Fu, I think I know who is going to sleep with you." Fu's glare returned.

"Devlin, I swear to Oum I will kill you."

…

Angel yawned a little as she woke up.

She looked over to Duplica, who was still asleep.

Angel smiled a little, Duplica was already a cute girl, but her sleeping somehow made that even more apparent.

"Great, how am I going to get out of this bed, let alone without waking Duplica up?" Angel paused.

"Poke!" Angel squeaked out of surprise.

Duplica giggled.

"Were you awake the whole time?" Duplica smiled a little, then nodded.

"Duplica." Angel said in a stern tone.

Duplica put a semi devious simile on her face.

"What? It's not like I- poke in the stomach!" Angel squeaked once more.

"Duplica that wasn't my stomach."

"Er, hold on, poke!"

"Gah, why are you poking lower?"

"Should I poke higher then?"

"Do you think my stomach is down there?"

"Well I don't know, you're taller than me and sense our heads are at around the same height I would have to poke lower wouldn't I?"

Angel paused.

"Should I just remove the blanket or something?" Duplica pouted.

"Or maybe I shouldn't, I'm going to assume you don't want me to unintentionally kill your fun again." Duplica nodded.

Angel sighed, then shifted to lay on her back.

"Aw." Angel rolled her eyes before resuming her old position.

"Poke!" Duplica poked, then noticed her finger entered in between Angel's thighs.

Angel stifled a surprised gasp, blush returning to her face.

"Oh, Duplica, I think you missed again…"

"You don't say… sorry maybe I should poke a little higher." Angel's blush grew a little.

"I think you should poke a little more than a little higher." Duplica noticed Angel's blush, then smiled a little.

"Fine." Duplica let out in an exaggerated tone before getting out of the bed, making a mental note that Angel must like her, which was fine with her; she was kind of harboring a crush of her own.

"Duplica?" Duplica turned to face Angel, smiling a little as Angel awkwardly looked away.

"I think we've probably napped enough today, I'm not sure what time it is, but it's probably near dinner time, and either way I am hungry." Angel nodded.

"I'm going to get some food."

"Duplica." Duplica paused, Angel's stern tone confused her.

"Yes?"

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

"Um…" It was Duplica's turn to blush.

"Right, I'll slap something on, then I'll go grab dinner, you wanna join?"

"Well, I'm going to put our clothes into the wash, then I'll join you, should I call the others?"

"Please?" Duplica asked as she slipped on some socks and under garments.

"Sure."

"Thanks, also, please don't mention this flashback to the others." Duplica replied as she put on another uniform dress and her uniform boots.

"If you insist."

"Yeah, thanks, well, I'll see you at dinner." With that Duplica walked out of the room.

Angel sighed.

"Was Duplica trying to make me uncomfortable?"

…

"Now's the time to go, I send my Nevermore to attack Vale!"

"Oh no, not Vale!" Jen gasped at Devlin's attack.

"Yes at Vale, and now sense you have nothing left,"

"We activate our troop card." Rachel cut off.

"What!?"

"We activate our troop card, eye for an eye! For every defending unit you manage to kill this fight you now have to remove units from your reserves!" Devlin frowned.

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Oh we would, and sense your troops are so low, we now remove all of your reserve troops."

"Yes, but I can still attack you girls directly with this Nevermore." Jen shook a finger, then took out two other cards.

"What are those?"

"We play our kingdom cards, air dominance, and rally cry. Air dominance will automatically kill any air unit you send our way, human or otherwise, and rally cry will gain us additional human troops based on how many Grimm we killed this round, and we gain more troops based on what we kill, the Grimm's class level to be exact." Devlin sighed as his army was nevermore.

"I think that ends his attack, and now we can gain three human soldiers for slaying a third class Grimm." Jen commented as she put down three extra units onto the board.

Jen and Rachel each took a card from their deck.

Rachel smiled over to Jen.

"Oh my, what is it now?"

"We use the armed to the teeth card, with this card we can upgrade our human and faunas troops up by one class, and sense we have three soldiers…" Jen's voice trailed off as Rachel replaced the three soldiers with three Huntsmen.

"We can upgrade to the huntsmen troops." Jen put her card down.

"I think that is a proper time to end our turn." Devlin raised an eyebrow.

"You're not going to attack?" Both girls shook their heads.

"Huh, well, it's your turn Cassidy." Cassidy nodded, then grabbed two cards from her deck.

"Alright, this is interesting." Cassidy put a card down, keeping one in hand.

"I will use the unit card mass production, with this I can bring in five class one androids into my army."

"Oh like you need more units." Jen commented.

"Never hurts to show the enemy why you are going to win."

"Fair enough."

"Wait, you're not going to try to upgrade that card?"

"I have nothing needed to upgrade it."

"Fair enough."

"And I end my turn." Devlin was confused, why were they not attacking him?

"Alright Nate, your turn." Nate took two cards from his deck, then smirked.

"I use this card, paranoia, and I use it on Vale!"

"Oh man, that hurts Nate." Rachel joked around.

"It's not over yet, this card will paralyze your human units with increased fear, only class four human troops can resist, well, other than androids and Grimm… anyways Grimm will now do a bonus plus ten damage to human units!"

"Oh no!" Jen and Rachel gasped.

"And now I will attack your units!"

"Not yet." Cassidy chimed in.

"What?"

"I use my alliance card, White Fang ambush!"

"Huh!?"

"With this card I attack your army directly, stopping your attack."

"Huh, why?" Jen asked.

"Girls have to look out of each other, right? Anyways this is payback for his previous attack, alright Nate, your turn is over unless…"

"I can activate another card? Like this one? I activate my counter card radio recon!"

"Ah, so my card is now useless, damn." Nate smirked.

"I resume my attack." Jen frowned as Rachel had to remove their three huntsmen.

"And now I can attack your kingdom, I have more than enough to kill you." Rachel took her face down card.

"That's far enough, we activate our unit card, natures wail!" Everyone else's eyes widened.

"No, no way." Nate replied.

"Oh yes, with the final upgraded form of Nature's call instead of calling five Beowolves, we now call in three Goliaths!" Nate grimaced.

"Now, about that army, I don't think they are any match for three class four units."

"My army!"

"You dared to attack us!"

"Why does everyone have to shout when they play this game?" The group looked over to Fu, who was currently reading a book.

"Were we shouting?"

"Yes."

"Oh, uh, sorry."

At that moment Jen's scroll went off.

She opened it.

"What is it?" Rachel asked.

"It's a voice message from Angel, hold on, I'll play it." Jen pressed the play button.

"Hey Jen, could you tell Rachel this message, if she isn't next to you anyways, me and Duplica are headed off to grab dinner, you should probably come along. Also, I noticed all the books on your desk, I didn't think the mid term's were already here… well anyways, see you at the dining hall." Jen looked over to Rachel.

"We should go, Fu, take over for us please."

"What?"

"Okay thanks, bye."

"What am I doing?"

"Can't hear you, we're out the door." Fu sighed in annoyance as Jen and Rachel walked out of the door.

"Welp, it's your turn Devlin." Cassidy replied

…

'By the time I get there I bet Duplica has already eaten her food.' Angel thought to herself as she walked into the dining hall, though something stopped her.

"Wow that was really interesting." A kid commented as she walked by.

"I really didn't think she could do that, but boy was I surprised."

"Man, she really proved me wrong."

Angel noticed a large group on one side of the hall, and she didn't know where Duplica was.

Out of curiosity and slight paranoia Angel walked over to the edge of the ring.

"What's going on?" She asked a guy.

"Hm, oh, we are all gathered around to see this girl's semblance." Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Her semblance?"

"Yeah, you should check it out." Angel turned, then slipped her way into the crowd.

"My lord."

"That was a tall order, but I told you I could copy that." Angel slipped her way into the middle, and sure enough…

"How is your semblance able to do such a thing?"

"You know, I don't have the slightest clue." Duplica looked around, still trying to pick up a zwei hander.

"Oh, hey Angel, what's up?"

"When and how did this happen?" Duplica smiled a little, the sword soon disappearing.

"Well, apparently word spread out, and I have a lot of skeptics, are Jen and Rachel showing up?" Angel nodded.

"Awesome, could you get my dinner please? I kind of have a lot more aura's to copy."

"How many have you copied so far?"

"Um, a lot, I don't know the number I kind of lost count after the twenty mark." Angel paused.

"Have you been drinking the tea me and Jen made for you?"

"I'm practically living off of it at this point." Angel nodded.

"Your chi is going to drain you like crazy, maybe we should lay off of copying more auras." Duplica frowned.

"I think I'm good." Angel sighed.

"Suit yourself." With that Angel turned to go grab some food.

"Man, now I have more auras then I'll know what to do with, and I thought managing thirteen of them in the middle of a fight was hard enough, after this I bet I'll have easily ten times that amount."

Duplica looked to see Angel had gotten the two dinner, and the others where joining her.

"Well, looks like I'm going to head off now, dinner calls."

"I didn't know Duplica had such a large fan base." Jen commented as she watched Duplica emerge out of the crowd.

"Yeah, apparently people found out how Duplica can copy auras and wanted to see if it was true or not." Angel explained.

"Looks like you got some competition Angel."

"Huh?"

"It's alright, don't worry about Rachel's comment, I mean, let's be honest, none of them have slept in Duplica's bed." Angel paused.

"I'm not going to hear the end of this am I?"

"Depends, are you two dating?"

"Well,"

"Hey guys, how's it going?" Duplica asked as she sat down.

"Just getting dinner, we can see you are doing the same." Duplica looked over to the large group of people.

"I managed to get roughly thirty something auras today." Jen and Rachel's mouths dropped.

"How!?"

"A lot of people wanted to try and prove me wrong that I wouldn't be able to copy their auras, let's say I proved a lot of people wrong." Duplica dug her fork into her dinner and began to eat.

"You have been drinking the tea me and Angel made you, right?"

"Yes mom." Duplica mocked playfully.

"Have you been meditating at all?"

"You're still yet to tell me how to do so."

"Good point, though speaking of something relating to what meditating does for you, here." Jen gave Duplica a couple of books.

"Huh?"

"These books had something pertaining to people with the last name Gorm, we bookmarked the pages so you can take a better look at them." Duplica paused.

"Do you think that would help?"

"Well, if you learn about their past ancestors maybe you might remember something about the Gorm that you had a connection to?" Duplica paused.

"I guess that would work." Duplica opened the first book, fork still in her mouth.

Duplica made some kind of humming noise while she was reading.

"So, um…" Duplica looked up to Rachel.

"Hm?"

"Are you and Angel going out yet?" Jen asked.

Duplica took the fork out of her mouth.

"What, why?"

"We walked in on you two sleeping naked in the same bed, if you two are not dating that makes it even more awkward." Duplica paused, both girls blushing at least a little bit.

"You two walked in on that?" Both Jen and Rachel nodded their head.

"The covers were over us at least, right?"

"Wait, that's what you are concerned about?" Rachel asked.

"Well was it?"

"Yes the blanket was covering you two." Duplica nodded.

"Well, I was planning on Angel warming me up sense I was having a cold flash, and I guess one thing led to another." Both Jen and Rachel looked at each other.

"Alright, I think we need some kind of code for when you two are doing something, how about, oh, I don't know, a sock tied to the door?" Duplica looked confused.

"Huh? What do you think we were doing? We were just taking a nap." The three looked over to Angel, whose blush was very apparent at this point.

"That's it?" Jen asked, looking back at Duplica.

"Yeah, why what else would we be doing?"

"… never mind Duplica, but still are you two dating?" Duplica paused.

"We can talk about this later, I should be reading."

"Right, sorry." Duplica closed the book.

"I didn't really get anything out of this one." Duplica picked up the second book.

"So what were you two doing before you came here?" Angel asked.

"We were hanging out with Devlin and the others."

"I wish we could have stayed longer, we just played Nature's Wail." Angel's eyes widened.

"Wait, Nature's Wail?"

"I know right?"

"Did you know the makers are making a fifth class expansion?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, Nature's Wrath is confirmed I heard."

"What does that do?"

"It sends out two class five Grimm, the Antles Queen I believe." Jen shivered.

"Oh god, not those." Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Huh?" Rachel put her head in between her hands.

"Is that what killed your last two members?" Angel frowned.

"Duplica, there's a better way to ask that."

"Well, she's not wrong." Jen commented.

"Oh, I see, I'm sorry to hear that, and I'm sorry about wording it like that."

"It's alright Duplica, you didn't mean any harm by it." Duplica put down the second book.

"Anything?" Duplica shook her head.

"Damn, and here we thought that this would work." Duplica shrugged her shoulders.

"To be fair all this really does is remind me of the name Gorm, I mean, I don't even know if Gorm was this persons first, middle, or last name. So for as far as we are concerned giving me people with the last name Gorm might not even help us." Jen and Rachel looked at each other.

"Huh…"

"We didn't think of that…"

"Well either way thanks for trying." Duplica put the books down and took her last bite.

"So, do we know anything else about Nature's Wrath?" Angel paused as Duplica's question.

"Do you two feel comfortable talking about this?"

"We should be fine." Jen replied.

"Alright, well if that's the case, every turn after the first time the enemy attacks each Antles Queen will spawn two Antles, which was confirmed to be class two Grimm." Duplica rose an eyebrow.

"So every turn you get four more units?"

"Yes, though they are low level, so they aren't too helpful." Duplica nodded.

"Huh, I always go Android though, what's the class five for that one?"

"Not sure yet, they didn't talk much about that one yet." Duplica nodded.

"Interesting, well anyways I think I'm going back to the room, check out the new auras I got, you girls ready?"

"I'm done, hold on I'll get your tray." Duplica smiled a little.

"What, not going to call me a lazy ass?"

"I think it's apparent that your ass is lazy at this point, I'm not even going to say it." Duplica laughed as the two walked off.

"Seriously, are those two going out or not?" Jen asked.

"I have no idea."

...

"So, what kind of new weapons and semblances do you have?" Angel asked Duplica as the two got back to the room.

"Well, let's see here, I have a zweihander, looks like it is infused with fire dust, a bunch of different swords, a scythe, weird, a couple axes, a few daggers, I don't know whose is whose, though I have plenty of new weapons to play with."

"Have you tried using the semblances yet?" Duplica paused.

"Well, I'm yet to try them out, though I'll try them out later, or tomorrow maybe." Angel rose an eyebrow as Duplica got her bathroom equipment.

"I think I'm going to shower, then get ready to go to bed." Duplica went to the door.

"You gonna join?" Angel paused.

"Well, at least let me get my stuff."

"Come on, and you call my ass lazy."

"Well, lazy and slow are two different things." Angel corrected as she got her stuff.

…

"So, I've been thinking." Duplica commented.

"About?" Angel asked.

The only thing between the two was a wall.

"Well, how am I able to copy other people's auras?"

"That's kind of like asking me how is it that my semblance allows me to project an upgraded form of dust."

"… This is different though."

"How so?"

"Well, having a semblance that controls something similar to dust is more understandable then being able to not only take that semblance as your own, but the owner's weapon as well." Angel paused.

"I personally don't know how to explain either of them to be honest, I just know that they can happen."

"I guess there really isn't any reason to it…"

Both girls ended their showers.

"But still, to copy other people's aura's what kind of semblance is that?" Duplica asked while brushing her teeth.

"I don't know, though to be fair I don't think a lot of people's semblances make a lot of sense, anyways you shouldn't be talking when you're brushing your teeth, you might miss your teeth."

"Yes mom."

"That's not my name." Duplica smiled a little.

"Fine, yes Killjoy."

"Man, all this sass you give me, I think I should ask Mr. Prime for a raise."

"So, ask him for a pay in general?"

"Yeah, the details are kind of fuzzy on that one." Duplica smiled a little.

"Well, whenever we see him next you can complain about my sass and find out where that gets you." Angel paused, then sighed.

"Alright, let's get you to bed." The two walked back to the room.

"So, about this afternoon…" Angel began.

She wanted to find out if Duplica liked her or not, though at the same time she didn't want to flat out ask.

Duplica paused, then took off her towel and turned.

She walked up to Angel.

"Look, how about we break this awkwardness?" Duplica took off Angel's towel and led her over to Duplica's bed.

"I like you, you like me, and sense I have no knowledge how we brake this ice, I kind of figured we already did when we slept together this afternoon. So, Angel, um… will you be my girlfriend?" Angel's blush returned, Duplica was as well, both girls where kind of embarrassed about what was happening just then.

"Oum, damn, why are you so adorable?" Angel asked.

Duplica's blush grew a little.

"What?"

"Will you be my girlfriend? People normally say 'will you go out with me?' You used different word choice, that's, that's adorable." Duplica continued to blush as Angel lightly pushed her onto her bed.

"Of course I'll go out with you." Duplica smiled a little as Angel climbed over Duplica and laid down next to her.

"Well that takes a weight off my chest." Duplica commented as Angel lightly put the blanket on top of both of them.

"Well, if you didn't break the ice I would have spent roughly five minutes tapping on it." Duplica smiled a little.

"Angel, you gotta learn how to be more direct."

"Oh, but you're so much better at it though, anyways it wouldn't hurt for you to learn how to sugarcoat what you say." Duplica paused.

"Oh, but you're so much better at it though." Duplica innocently smiled up to Angel's look of disapproval.

"Do you want me to not warm you up?" Duplica pouted, soon beginning to shiver.

Angel sighed, it seems like Duplica's cuteness won yet again.

"Okay, okay, you win." Duplica closed her eyes and sighed in content as Angel hugged her, soon applying some heat from her body to soothe Duplica.

"Should we put a sock on the door to mess with Rachel and Jen?" Duplica asked sleepily.

"What you should do is get some rest, sense you now have fifty something auras I think you're going to need more sleep than ever." Duplica looked at Angel.

"Do you think you can warm up some of that tea when you wake up?"

"If I can climb over you without waking you up, then sure, now get some sleep, you're going to need it." Duplica sleepily nodded, then was asleep soon after.

Angel sighed as she moved the arm that was under Duplica out from under Duplica and under the pillow their heads where resting on.

'Well, this is going to be fun to explain to Jen and Rachel tomorrow.' Angel thought to herself before falling asleep as well.

"Right, and I have a third eye." Jen commented sarcastically to Rachel as the two walked into the dorm room.

"You might as well after I prove to you that…" Both Jen and Rachel looked over to Duplica's bed.

"Seriously, are they going out or not?"

"I have no idea." Jen commented.


	12. Something Amiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duplica and Angel continue their jobs in this flashback, though will it be a lot cleaner this time around?

"Here's the place, kind of weird for our target, won't you agree?" Angel asked Duplica as the two walked up to a large mansion.

"I don't know, I've heard this woman was a famous writer, having a huge mansion isn't out of the question." Duplica replied.

"I wonder why the boss wants us to kill this target."

"I don't know, though like you say, never say no to the boss, now come on, we've got work to do." Duplica hid behind a tree.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Angel thought about Duplica's question.

"Well, we can't go in guns blazing, actually, we could, but there might be security or something of the sorts. I'm not sure how to pull this one off, maybe we can try to get into the mansion and kill this woman without being detected."

"Do you think this mansion is heavily guarded?"

"We should check that out before doing anything else." Duplica nodded.

"My thoughts exactly, I'll check out the left side, you check the right." Duplica took her whip sword and latched it onto a branch.

"Be careful Duplica."

"Don't worry, I will." With that Duplica swung over to another tree.

Angel shook her head.

"I worry about her sometimes…" Angel used some minor wind magic to boost her jump over to the right side of the building.

She didn't see anything on the right side of the mansion, well, people wise anyways. There were plenty of rooms, though they were all empty.

"Huh, a mansion, but no maids to clean it up?" Angel jumped up to the rooftop of the mansion.

Duplica observed the left side of the mansion.

"Huh, that must be the target, first floor, in her bedroom it seems. There is another person, a man, two men actually. Butlers or bodyguards, either way I guess me and Angel will have to kill them... man, why does the boss even want us to kill these people anyways?" Duplica shook her head before noticing Angel was on the roof.

Duplica changed auras in order to use an impact and jump up to the roof.

"Did you find anything?" Angel asked.

"Yeah, the target looks like she's going to bed, though there are two men in the room directly above her."

"Alright, so basically there is no way to get to either the two men or the target without alerting the other, rather clever."

"Okay, so I'm not sure what we are going to do, though I have an idea on what we could do."

"What's the plan?"

"I'll go for the target, when the fight outbreaks the two guards or whatever they are will rush to help, then you surprise attack them. I can take care of the woman, then come over to help you finish off the men." Angel paused.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Well, we have the attacker and distraction, then there is the stall unit, we should be fine, you can take on two possible huntsmen, right?" Angel paused.

"I'm more concerned about your safety, but if you think this will work, then we can try it out."

"Alright, that's more like it." Duplica noticed the lights in the bottom floor go out.

"Hm, how to do this…" Duplica swung her whip sword around a tree.

"Do you want an impact?"

"Please?"

"Sure, here." Duplica jumped on the impact, then was propelled away from the mansion.

Duplica used the whip sword to swing herself back towards the mansion in quicker velocities.

'I really hope this works!' Duplica thought to herself as she changed auras, using Angel's to produce a barrier in front of her.

She crashed through the window while Angel silently used some of her fire magic to melt her way through some glass.

"What was that?" One of the guys asked the other.

"No clue." A shout and a loud thump on the floor answered the question for them.

"Nothing good that's for sure."

"You're telling me, come on we should help Sam out." The two guys ran out of the room, though the first one was knocked against the wall by a large rock.

"What the," The second one was pelted by a couple more rocks, and was blasted back into the room.

"You'll be going nowhere men." The two were confused.

"James, by me."

"I'm kind of in the wall currently Alex." Alex sighed.

The figure started to slowly walk up to Alex.

There was one light in the middle of the two.

The men were confused when they saw who walked into the light.

"Huh?"

"Did you not hear me? I'm not going to allow you to help your friend." Both guys looked at each other.

"Out of everyone who could have walked out of the shadows, did you expect this?"

"A harmless looking blonde? Yeah, didn't expect that." Angel frowned, rolling her eyes.

"So, you think me harmless?" Alex smirked as he pulled out his scimitar, swinging it to the bladed side was pointing to the ground, instead of the hilt.

"James!"

"On it." James rushed forward, twisting the middle of his bow and pulling.

Angel opened her parasol as James stabbed forward.

Angel smirked, then used some wind magic on the back of the parasol to push towards James.

James was already moving forward, so he slammed right into Angel's parasol.

He stumbled back, though a dust crystal flying past him allowed him enough time to change his daggers back into its bow form.

The water crystal hit Angel's shield, the force was enough to explode the crystal.

Angel was knocked back a bit, then was swamped by the water that exploded out of the crystal.

James loaded an arrow, the bow's electric crystal started to glow.

Angle noticed what the man was trying to pull off, and used her water magic to take control of the water. She managed to flow all the water off and away from her person right before the electric arrow was pulled.

Angel shot all the water forward in the fashion of a large water spear before blocking with a barrier. The water had conducted the electricity, and managed to hit Alex, though James managed to get out of the way in time.

"Let's see how you fare against, this!" James closed the ends of the bow, leaving the base, the ends and string grew out of one side of the blade and the crystals integrated into the base of the weapon, turning the bow into a dust infused katana.

"Come here you!" James sent an attract behind him.

Angel summoned an impact in front of her and jumped out the window in time.

"Well, does that take care of her?"

"I doubt it, that girl could fight, regardless of how she looked, I don't think she would be the kind to just pout and quit." A quick strike to the back of Alex's head was the conformation the two needed, though it was too late.

Angel used some wind magic to knock Alex into James.

James was slammed over the railway and flew down to the first floor.

"I guess we were right." Angel readied her parasol.

"I do not back out of a job, I'm sorry, but you and your friend are in the way, and I have no choice but to stop you from interfering." Alex frowned.

"Like we will let you continue your job!" Alex slashed forward with his scimitar, though Angel knocked it to the side with the side of the parasol.

Angel moved forward, hitting the man with the blunt end of the parasol. Angel pressed a button, extending the parasol's blade.

"I didn't think you would, I'm sad to say but I am to complete my job, no matter what the cost." Angel stabbed forward, quickly using some ice magic to attempt to freeze Alex's left leg.

Angel ducked under another slash, turning away from Alex. She made a quick mental note that James was approaching before turning back and slashing at Alex once more.

Alex was knocked back, though he quickly got back up and broke a wind crystal behind him to launch himself at Angel.

Angel looked to see James was rushing towards her, to stab her probably.

Angel smirked before changing her element to barrier.

Angel stabbed her parasol towards Alex, and formed a barrier at where James was attacking. Both melee attacks where blocked.

Angel quickly closed her parasol before running behind Alex, quickly putting an impact behind him.

Alex turned to attack, though the impact went off before he could, sending him flying into James.

"Oum, she's tougher than we thought." James commented as the two got up.

"Hold on, there are two of us, why don't we overwhelm her?"

"Sounds good enough to me." They looked to see Angel was staying back, observing the situation.

"Well, let's get this over with." Alex put away his scimitar, taking two crystals out of the pouches inside the jacket he wore.

"James I'll take point, you stay back."

"Right." James took out his bow once more.

Angel frowned, then opened the parasol once more. The dust crystals effects, fire and electricity, flew off the parasol, shielding Angel from the attacks.

James smirked soon loading five arrows, then firing them all.

Each arrow had an impact effect to them. One managed to land under Angel, who noticed and used some wind magic to rebound the remaining crystals that where being tossed at her.

The impact fired, sending Angel slamming against the ceiling.

Angel started to fall, though Alex slashed at her with the scimitar.

She was knocked down to the first floor, and Duplica was soon to land on her.

"Duplica?"

"That's one powerful writer." Duplica commented as the two got back up.

"So girls, was your mission worth it?" Alex asked as he and James jumped down and landed on two sides of the girls.

A stray piece of paper landed behind James.

"I can see your boss isn't too much of a fan to my works, it's a bit extreme to send two young girls to throw their lives away on a crazy assassin mission. So, I'll give you girls one chance, you can leave right now, and we will not have to press this fight, or you can try to continue your boss's orders, though be warned…" Sam took out her pen once more, a thin red blade extended from the pens base.

"We will deal with you accordingly, and sense you threaten us with our lives, we might as well defend ourselves, and how the cyan haired girl put it, 'at any cost.'"

Angel looked over to Duplica.

Duplica paused, she knew that Angel was letting her decide.

"We really don't want to hurt you, honestly we don't." The other three lowered their weapons.

"Though, there isn't saying no to our boss." The three looked on edge, but still didn't draw their weapons.

"We're not exactly in an easy place, though I doubt that will change anything." Duplica blinked, a tome appearing in one hand, a pen in the other.

The pen extended to reveal a thin blue blade.

"And I'm sad to say we are not leaving without your heads, um, not literally by the way, that's just gross."

Sam frowned.

"Oh, what a shame, I was hoping that you would see reason, well, I guess we will have to get rid of you, and I shall have my weapons back thank you, the world does not need a copy cat." Duplica smirked.

"Just try to stop me." In the blink of an eye Duplica disappeared, only to reappear right behind James.

"What the, she also got your semblance!" Alex shouted as Duplica stabbed James in the back.

Angel used the blunt end of her parasol to slam James onto the ground.

"Angel!"

"Right!" Angel opened the parasol as Sam stabbed a little to the left of the parasol's stick.

Luckily Angel's parasol blocked the blade. The fire wave spawned by the blade was blocked by the parasol's shield portion.

Angel smirked.

"You missed the base." Angel pulled the trigger.

"Oh hell no." Angel looked to see Alex run straight at her.

"I don't think so!" Duplica quickly changed auras, used Angel's wind magic to kick James at Alex, then quickly changed back to Sam's ability to write a large ice page and throw it at the enemies.

The page glowed light blue, then while it spun icicles flew out of the edges of the page.

"Duck!" Duplica extended the blue blade and swung at Sam.

Sam blocked, though her fire wave was taken out by Duplica's water puddle. Angel quickly shot some lightning at Sam.

"Hey, watch it." Angel turned to see Duplica was fighting Alex, though the scimitar was far superior compared to Duplica's thin pen blade.

"Hold on, allow me." Duplica shook her head, changing her aura over to a mix of James's and Angel's aura.

"Are you sure you want to do that, you know that will drain your chi quicker."

"Just let me do this." Angel sighed.

"Alright, have fun." Duplica ran forward, quickly guarding with some barrier magic and then slashing through said magic with her blade.

Alex stepped back, which got a stab to the gut as the response. Duplica kicked the scimitar aside and punched Alex across the face.

Duplica continued punching Alex, only stopping once her mind made it apparent that she had copied Alex's weapon.

"Angel."

"Right." Duplica changed auras back to the whip sword.

"Who is this boss of yours?" Sam decided to ask as she dodged an attack from Duplica.

"That's nothing you need to know that's for sure." Duplica said coolly as she retracted the whip, turning back into a normal blade.

Sam frowned before the red blade retracted back into the pen, being replaced with a cyan blade.

Duplica quickly changed auras and used some of Angel's fire magic to conjure a flamethrower.

"It's time that we end this." Duplica continued the flame, the only time it stopped was when Duplica was cut off by James.

"Stay away from Sam!" A sudden sharp stab through his heart stopped him from doing any further damage.

"I'm sorry, but you're in our way." Angel replied.

"You bitch!" Alex shouted.

"Don't worry, you'll join him soon enough." Duplica frowned, then turned to face Sam once more.

"You will pay for that!" Sam's blade changed to light green, when she slashed, a large gust of wind was let out.

Duplica retaliated by using enough wind magic to slam the door shut in front of her.

Duplica put an impact directly behind her, she jumped up to the impact, then let it launch her through the door.

"Come here you!"

Angel frowned as she opened her parasol once more, barely being able to block a few more dust crystals from exploding on her.

Angel retaliated with a barrage of assault rifle ammo. Alex was caught off guard, and the price to pay was a harsh slash across the face, though unfortunately for him, his chi had run out.

"I'm sorry, neither of us had any other choice." Angel looked over to the door Duplica had broken down to see Duplica walk out of it.

"Is the deed done?" Duplica sighed.

"Why do we have to murder these people Angel?" Angel frowned.

"I don't know, the boss tells me as much as they tell you."

"I know, though I just wish I knew why." Angel put an arm around Duplica.

"What's important is that we got the job done." Duplica's lack of a smile worried Angel.

"Come on, let's get back to town, I'll buy you an ice cream or something." Duplica laughed a little.

"I'm not a little kid Angel."

"Oh come off it, you have to admit that ice cream is nice, no matter what the age." Duplica paused.

"One scoop or two scoop?" Angel smiled before kissing Duplica on the forehead.

"However many scoops you want… though not too much, we don't want the bosses funds being wasted too much on our treats."


	13. Four's a Pack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group goes out for some weapons training, will they find anything in the Evermore Forest, or will it be a normal training session?

"Hey, lazy ass," Duplica groaned as she woke up.

She looked to see Angel was still lying down next to her.

"There we are, you're awake, finally." Duplica gave Angel a puzzled expression.

"Alright, so Jen and Rachel are currently getting breakfast, don't worry I already cleared the whole dating thing, we should probably get dressed so we can join our teammates." Duplica paused, then shook her head.

"Huh?"

"Can we lie down for at least a few more minutes? I need to tell you something." Angel raised an eyebrow.

"Did you have another dream flashback?" Duplica nodded.

"Anything good?" Duplica shook her head.

Angel frowned, putting an arm around her girlfriend.

"Did we kill more people?"

There was a pause.

"Yes." Angel sighed, starting to lightly rub Duplica's back.

"Alright, so what happened?" Duplica sighed.

"So basically we went to a mansion to murder a writer, not sure why, and it seems like we were still working for that old boss, whoever that was."

"Hm… and we still have no idea of who we used to work for?" Duplica shook her head.

"All I know is that they were apparently scary enough to get both of us to kill people for them without question." Angel paused.

"Both of us?"

"Yes both of us."

"Huh, so the total list is brought up from one to four…" Duplica sighed unhappily has she sneaked her arms around Angel.

Angel allowed Duplica to get some comfort out of hugging her.

"I know I'm timid, but you're brave, that old boss of ours must be terrifying if they even got you to murder without question." Angel lightly patted Duplica on the head before continuing the light back rub.

"Whatever happened is past Duplica, we work for Mr. Prime now, and sense we were not arrested for our crimes yet, I'm going to assume Mr. Prime did something about that as well."

"But, what happened to our old boss? Are they still at large? Will they come back to take us back and make us murder again?"

"Duplica." Duplica hugged Angel a little tighter, fear apparent.

"I don't want to kill again Angel."

"Duplica." Duplica looked up to Angel.

"We're fine, that old boss isn't going to come back for us."

"But what if they do?"

"Well, they are making you scared, and as your bodyguard slash girlfriend I will not stand to see people throwing you out of your comfort zone." Duplica frowned.

"But, what if they scare you?" Angel smiled, adding a little more pressure to her back rub.

"They aren't going to scare me, if it means you'll stay safe I'll confront this boss, anyways they would have to find us first, and I doubt they even know where we are."

"I hope they don't, we don't have Mr. Prime around to help us."

"Even if that's the case we have Jen and Rachel, not to mention a whole school to back us up, we're fine." Duplica paused, then pouted.

Angel raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong Duplica?"

"Did you wake up before me?"

"Yeah."

"Then why did you not make me a cup of tea?" Angel smiled a little.

"Look at your nightstand babe." Duplica broke the embrace and rolled over in the bed.

"Huh…" Angel laughed a little before sitting up, Duplica soon doing so as well in order to drink her tea.

"Mm, still warm." Duplica said happily before she continued to drink the cup of tea.

"I think you might want to start drinking that more often."

"Why?"

"You have four times the aura that you had before, and you barely had enough chi to work with the previous amount that you had, so in theory if you want to keep up with the pace you will have to drink roughly four times the amount you do already." Duplica paused.

"It makes sense, though then I would be in the bathroom for a while."

"This is just one of the ways, remember there are three different things we can try." Duplica shrugged her shoulders.

"I'll think about it, anyways we should probably put something on and join Jen and Rachel in the dining hall, though after that do you mind if we stop by the library?"

"Not at all, what do you need the library for?"

"Simple, to find out more about the writer who we killed, maybe if I can read an auto biography on her maybe I can learn more about who she was, and why we had to kill her." Angel paused.

"Well, we can do that some other time, remember we have class after breakfast." Duplica sighed.

"Right, I forgot." The two got changed and met Jen, Rachel, and Team DFNC in the dining hall.

"There are the love birds." Jen teased as the two sat down.

"Oh, so you two are finally going out huh?" Cassidy asked.

"Well…" Angel blushed, and the quick kiss Duplica placed on her cheek didn't help at all.

"Sure are." Jen and Rachel smiled at each other.

"So Jen, Rachel, remember, our room's always open." Duplica looked confused at Devlin.

"Huh?" Nate laughed.

"Ha, such an innocent mind." Duplica looked even more confused.

Fu rolled her eyes.

"Duplica is obviously clueless. She's been clueless sense the first time you told the joke. I think if you want to tease her sex isn't the greatest way." Duplica looked shocked.

"Wait, why were you guys talking about me and Angel having sex? That's private business." Angel's face was red with embracement at this point.

"Wait, so did you?" Rachel asked.

"What, no, no why would we do that when we have two roommates? Anyways this is personal information you shouldn't be asking about." Jen looked over to Rachel.

"Alright, we're sorry." Duplica nodded.

"So, what class do we have soon?"

"We have Combat Training with Professor Athena, you remember her right?"

"Yeah, the lady who knows fighting inside and out, maybe seen sideways and backwards." Duplica replied.

"Yup, it's at, hold on let me check my scroll… oh, you might want to finish up Duplica, we are about to run late!" Duplica nodded, then got up, half eaten sweet roll in her hand.

"We should go now then." Once the group made their way over to the sparring area the class begun.

"Alright students, today we will be learning the nature of team work." Athena started to explain.

"Well, I guess it's time to brush up huh?" Angel asked Duplica.

Athena had seemed to hear that comment, because she smirked.

"I'm sorry Angel, though this time around we are having a little bit of a twist to the lesson." Angel looked at the professor, obviously confused.

"So, we all know about teamwork at this point, working together as a group to take down anything that stands in your way, though there is one thing I am here to teach you, and what is that?"

"How to fight to our fullest?" A student answered.

"Exactly, and even though I know you students don't want to think of something like this, but what if something happens during your time as a team, and you get separated?" There was a murmur from the crowd of students.

"Though they didn't die, you guys just got separated, let's say you where part of a large strike team. You're tired, not exactly injured, though you are alone, after a whole day of killing Grimm you are getting tired, and kind of worried that you are not with your teammates." Athena looked around the group, then looked directly at Duplica.

"What would you do in this situation Duplica?" Duplica paused.

"Um, sense I'm worried the Grimm would go after me more relentlessly I guess I would run in order to try and find someone else."

"Not just a team member?" Duplica shook her head.

"You said we were in a massive strike squad, though I would prefer a teammate at this time it's either the first person I find, or be attacked in the trees by a Nevermore or something." Athena nodded.

"Smart one aren't you? Well, in order to make sure all of you will be ready for any situation today we will be separating into pairs, though you will not be allowed to work with anyone from your team." Angel looked over to Devlin.

Devlin nodded, though Angel shaking her head confused him. Angel pointed to Duplica. Devlin nodded, knowing what she was implying.

"Alright, split up." Duplica frowned, she was worried, what was she going to do?

She couldn't fight alongside her bodyguard and girlfriend, and she was mostly the reason why Duplica felt even remotely confident in a battle.

"Hey." Duplica looked up to Devlin.

"Wanna partner up?" Duplica smiled a little, then nodded.

"Well, at least I'm with a friend." Duplica looked around to see the rest of her team ended up teaming up with the rest of Devlin's team.

Angel paired up with Cassidy, Rachel went with Nathaniel, and Jen ended up with Fu.

"Alright, so, can anyone tell me how long a class usually is?"

"Roughly two hours, give or take a few minutes." Jen answered.

"Correct, and sense we are near this one in particular, today we will be training in the Evermore forest." Jen and Rachel nervously looked at each other.

"However, before we go there is something you should know. There used to be villages in there, but they are not allies anymore. Sad to say its Grimm territory now, we don't know what happened to the people in that forest, all I can guess is that it was nothing good. Keep your wits about you." With that the class got onto a few airdrop ships and flew over to the forest.

"What do you think happened to the people that lived in this forest?" Duplica asked Devlin as the ships flew over part of the large forest.

"I don't know, some say they all died when the population of Grimm sky rocketed in this forest, some say they all escaped and secretly live in society nowadays, and the rest say that they might have been turned into weird hybrids." Duplica frowned.

"For everyone's sake I really hope the second one happened." Devlin continued to look down to the forest.

"Alright, this should be it, we will be back to pick you up after two hours, you two are rather far off from the others in order to keep this lesson as accurate as possible, after two hours return to this point, don't worry, we'll make it apparent where we will pick you up from, any questions?"

"I don't think so, do you have any questions Duplica?"

"Are there really Grimm hybrids in this forest?" Both Devlin and the pilot paused.

"Well, it's a rumor, though I have no idea, I guess you'll find out once you get in there." Duplica frowned.

"Alright, then let's go I guess." Both Duplica and Devlin jumped out of the airship.

"The mission is just to survive until they come back, right?" Duplica asked once the two landed.

"It would seem to, though obviously they want us to go Grimm slaying, as opposed to just staying here and waiting for them to come back." Duplica frowned.

"Are you going to be alright?" Devlin asked, he figured sense Duplica didn't have her bodyguard and lover with her she was probably even more timid then she normally was.

"… As long as we don't face off against anything big I guess I'll be fine." There was a howl, which made Duplica jump a bit.

"Let's hope that you're right about that."

…

"So, we have to survive in this forest for two hours?" Cassidy asked as she and Angel landed.

"From the sounds of it, yes, and that should be simple, it's just Grimm killing for two hours, there's nothing hard about that." Angel looked to see three Beowolves charging towards them.

Angel smirked before sending a large ice wave to freeze all three enemies in their tracks.

"See? Simple." Cassidy laughed.

"Agreed, this should be a piece of cake." Angel paused.

"I hope Duplica's going to be fine."

"I'm sure she'll be fine, even if she panics Devlin's enough to keep the two safe." Angel paused.

"I hope so."

"Whoa, watch out." Cassidy commented as she saw two Ursa approach.

"You might want to keep those worrisome thoughts suppressed Angel, though we want some Grimm to kill, we don't want too much." Angel nodded.

"Right, sorry."

"It's no problem, let's just get this done."

…

"Woohoo!" Rachel shouted as she landed on top of an Ursa, quickly knocking it on the stomach and jumping off. Her semblance powered up the blow, and a good amount of whatever was in the Ursi was broken at that point.

"Finally, some time to do what we are training for, Grimm slaying." Nate commented as he killed a second Ursi.

"It's nice to not be cooped up Venus Campus for a class." Rachel agreed.

"This should be simple, two power houses against the forest."

"I bet we could crack the armor of a Deathstalker."

"Wanna find out?"

"Hell yeah I do."

"Alright, then let's do this!"

…

"Oum, Jen do you have a death wish or something?" Fu snapped.

Jen laughed.

"You should have seen the look on your face."

"With the height and velocity of how you fell you could have taken serious damage you dumb ass." Jen only laughed harder.

"You looked so startled when I landed next to you, it was perfect." Fu glared.

"Damn it, why didn't you get knocked out or something? This is more annoying then talking to my actual team, insufferable." Jen got up.

"Sheesh, relax, I'm fine." Jen blinked, iris's glowing.

"My semblance sponged all the damage, I didn't feel a thing." Fu sighed, glare not going away.

"I swear to Oum if you act this childish during combat you're as good as dead, I can't bear to find out when we actually run into something." Jen looked to see a Deathstalker walking towards them.

"Well, allow me to demonstrate how I fight then." Jen turned and charged towards the Deathstalker.

"Come here you!"

…

"Did you hear that?" Duplica asked.

"Yeah, that was a Nevermore." Devlin commented.

"Huh, well at least the forest is pretty thick, I doubt the Nevermore will be able to get us."

"I would focus on what's in front of us Duplica." Duplica looked, then nodded.

"Right, that's a lot of Beowolves." Duplica took out a dust spear.

"This is going to be easy." Devlin confidently commented.

"I guess." Duplica pressed a button on the spear, the dust revolver changed over to fire dust.

"Time to let this rip!" Duplica spun the spear around.

Devlin took out his shotguns right as Duplica stabbed the ground, letting out a fire wave around them.

"Huh, that was cool, uh, I mean hot!" Devlin sighed.

"Come on, let's just keep going." The two ran off.

"Whoa, slow down." Duplica laughed a little.

"More like keep up." Duplica looked to see how far behind Devlin was.

"Hm, alright, I'll jog." Devin caught up and the two ran off.

"Whoa, look at the size of that Ursa!" Duplica shouted in surprise.

"Major, come on, let's kill it." Duplica frowned, then stopped running.

"Duplica?" Devlin looked to see Duplica run up the surface of a tree and land on a branch, sniper rifle soon appearing in her hands.

"It's all yours Devlin, all yours!" Duplica snipped a much smaller Ursa.

"Oh well, more action for me." Devlin charged at the Ursa, blocking a swipe with one of his shotguns.

The blades on the sides of the shotgun stuck into the Ursa's arm. Devlin noticed, then fired.

The kickback of the gun made the blade rip through the arm of the Ursa.

The creature roared, though a few shotgun shells to the throat killed it.

"Easy." Devlin looked to see one more Ursa charging at him.

"Time for round two?" Though a sniper bullet took the kill.

"Are we good?" Duplica asked.

"It doesn't look like we have any other Grimm to kill here." Duplica nodded, though a sharp shake of the tree she was standing on startled her.

"Whoa!" Duplica lost balance.

"Duplica?" Devlin turned around to see what was going on.

Wham, the tree was slammed again.

"Ah!" Duplica fell off the tree, though was able to change aura's quickly.

Duplica got her whip sword, then swung for another tree.

The sword latched around a branch, and Duplica was able to swing onto a different tree.

Duplica changed auras, then used some impact magic to launch herself over to Devlin.

"What was that?"

"I don't know." At that moment the tree fell over. Duplica grabbed Devlin and used some wind magic to boost the two out of the way in time.

"King Taijitu!" Duplica shouted. Devlin smirked, both guns ready.

"Great, now this is a round two!"

…

"So, why don't you have a weapon?" Angel asked Cassidy as the two were taking a quick brake by Cassidy's request.

"I know how to fight with my fists, I know martial arts, and my semblance helps me use my skill to its fullest." Angel paused.

"That must mean that you use your chi a lot, right?" Cassidy nodded.

"I have enough to last me a battle or two, though I can't really last much longer than that."

"So, can you last the two hours we have?"

"As long as we are not fighting for the whole time yeah." Angel nodded.

"Alright, I've trained my chi a lot, so if you get tired just get out of the situation, I can handle extensive fighting." Cassidy nodded.

"Alright, well, sense sitting down and talking for two hours would be way to boring why don't we go do something more interesting, I see a few Boarbatusk's that are still alive, and I see that as a problem, do you agree?" Angel took out her parasol.

"The way I see it Athena sent us out here to fight some Grimm, might as well do what the class in tales right?" Both girls got up, and jumped at the group of monsters.

…

"Hm, I think we found our target Rachel." Nate commented as the two walked out of some bushes.

"Oh yeah, what's the target?"

"Look ahead." Rachel looked in front of the two.

"Oh, Antles huh?" Nate nodded.

"Last time I checked it's suggested that we need a whole team to take these things out." Nate shrugged his shoulders.

"We have two heavy hitters, we'll be fine." Rachel frowned.

"Have you ever faced these things before?" Nate shook his head.

"No wonder you made that assumption, two heavy hitters are not enough to take care of those things, we need more people." It was Nate's turn to frown.

"I thought you wanted to face tough foes yes? Why are you backing out all of a sudden?" Rachel's frown grew a little.

"Because, I don't want us to die out here." With that Rachel turned and walked away.

"Whoa, what's got her so worked up all of a sudden?" Nate asked himself before putting away his club in disappointment.

Nate made it a mental note to ask Rachel what the problem was whenever he had the time to before following Rachel to wherever she was walking off to.

…

"Aces!" Jen shouted victoriously as the Deathstalker fell to the ground, lifeless and dead.

"See Fu, I know what I am doing." Jen looked back to Fu, though Fu wasn't pleased.

"Know what you are doing? How many times had the Deathstalker swat you away like a human does to a simple little bug?" Jen sighed.

"Fu, I don't think you understand, my semblance allows me to soak up damage and take little to no damage from it, why would I not charge into the battlefield when my semblance makes me near invincible?"

"So that means dive in front of everything that stands in your way?"

"Well, if it means it will protect my friends, then yes, I will gladly take the bullet for them, because again, if someone shot me I would be able to take that shot and more." Fu paused.

"If I can make sure my friends can defeat our enemies, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't take the hits for them, I have both the mind set and aura to do so, why would I go against what I was made to do?" Jen looked around the forest.

"Anyways we've got roughly an hour left, and I would rather not spend this time arguing with you, if you want to join me in finding some more Grimm to kill then be my guest."

…

"There, that should be the end of that Grimm." Devlin commented as he cut the head of the second King Taijitu.

Duplica sighed in relief as she sat down, resting on the corpse.

"Catching your breath?" Devlin asked as he sat down next to her.

"Yeah, that fight was tiring." Duplica opened a water bottle filled with the tea that Jen made.

"What drink?" Devlin asked as Duplica drank half of the bottle.

"I don't know, some kind of tea, all I know is that is apparently will help boost my chi, so I am basically just drinking this from now on."

"Do you not have enough chi?"

"Well, to be fair every aura I have takes chi in order to maintain so I can use them on a moment's notice. If roughly fifteen auras needs twelve hours of sleep, how much do you think that fifty plus auras will need?" Devlin paused.

"How did you wake up at all today?"

"I'm not sure to be honest, so now I need to drink as many of these as humanly possible." Duplica drank the water bottle, then tossed it.

"Do you think you're done for this lesson?" Duplica paused.

"I don't think so, there's easily an hour left, I'll just take a nap when I get back, or made drink a lot more of this tea."

"Is that why you brought a backpack with you?" Duplica paused, then nodded.

"How many bottles do you have in there?"

"Not sure, enough to fill a back pack that's for sure." Duplica looked around the area.

"It looks like we're good for now, how are you doing Devlin?"

"I'm fine, I'm not the timid one remember?" Duplica pouted.

"Shut up," she then lost the pout, "anyways I was talking medically wise, you damaged at all?"

"No, I should be good." Duplica nodded, then noticed something burrowing out from the ground, right behind Devlin.

"Devlin, watch out!" Devlin turned, though the creature as almost ready to jump out and attack. Duplica reacted by changing to her bow and firing an attract arrow on a tree that was behind Devlin.

Devlin was moved back, and Duplica loaded three arrows, ice dust crystal glowing, the arrows aimed right at the hole.

The creature popped out to attack, and Duplica fired. The creature got her in its pincers, though was stuck in the hole it created.

"Duplica!" Duplica shouted in surprise as the creature lifted her up into the air, getting ready to eat her.

Devlin charged, both shotguns at the ready. Duplica changed auras, pulling out her tome.

"By Oum let this work!" Duplica ripped a page out of the tome and used her wind dust to rocket it away from the creature.

"Let go of her Antles!" Duplica felt the creature do just that.

"Oh shit!" Duplica closed her eyes, and teleported right as she was about to fall into the creature's mouth.

"Duplica!" She heard once she got out of the teleport, currently hiding on the top of a tree.

…

"Did you hear that?" Angel asked.

"No, what?"

"I thought I heard Devlin shout Duplica's name in concern." Cassidy smiled.

"You must really love her if you are starting to hear things, come on, those Ursa aren't going to kill themselves." Angel paused, then nodded.

"Good point, let's go!"

…

"Oh great, Duplica might have died, and now I'm all alone, facing an Antles." Devlin readied himself.

"I need to be quick in killing this thing, but that's the problem, I'm not quick." Something stopped his worrying though.

"Round three, fight!" A barrage of grenades exploded on the Antles with enough power to crack, and actually break the Grimm's bone armor.

"Try getting me again, I dare you!" Devlin watched as Duplica jumped out of the tree, his guns in hands.

"Don't worry, I'll give you something to chew on." Duplica stabbed the side blades into the head of the monster, then fired, rocketing herself to the ground.

"A full course meal in fact!" Duplica fired away from the Antles, then turned, and started to quickly slice and shoot at the monster.

"Duplica!" Duplica turned around, smiling, though that disappeared quickly when she saw Devlin's expression.

"You best explain girly!" Duplica backed away, Devlin looked furious.

"Um, I, explain what?" Devlin walked forward, Duplica started to back away, soon walking into a tree, and dropping in surprise.

"Explain those weapons." Duplica grabbed her bag and attempted to hide behind it.

"How did you copy Naga and Wyvern, and why did you?"

"My semblance allows me to copy people's semblances and weapons, I do so by contact or fighting against or alongside someone. I didn't mean to copy your weapons I didn't know you would mind."

"Why the hell would I not mind? My guns are part of who I am, they are mine for a reason you know. There better be way for you to forget them." Duplica paused, then nervously shook her head.

The next look Devlin shot could almost kill, which only made Duplica even more afraid.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it just happened, please don't kill me." Devlin paused, he was mad with Duplica, that's for sure, no one should be allowed to use his weapons but him, fuck the semblance even, the guns were more important to him.

Though if she had no control over it, it kind of was and wasn't her fault.

Anyways, sense Grimm feed off of fear, and sense Devlin's outrage was in play Duplica looked like she was on the verge of tears.

Duplica was basically a feast right now, and she was almost eaten before she started to panic, she would be as good as dead right now, and if that happens, his next talk to Angel would probably be his last time to talk, ever.

Devlin sighed, how was he going to make Duplica no longer scared?

"Look." Duplica paused, then poked her head out from behind her backpack.

"As long as you don't use my weapons, we'll be fine."

"But, what happens if I need your semblance or something?" Devlin paused.

"Then use it how you where using it, sense it's different then how I use it." Duplica hid behind her bag again.

Devlin sighed.

"Duplica, I'm not mad with you." The bag shifted, which told Devlin that Duplica was shaking her head.

"You're really mad with me."

"No, I'm fine, it's water under the bridge, here." Duplica looked to see Devlin extended a hand to help her up.

Duplica shook her head.

Devlin was confused, was Duplica now mad with him?

Duplica opened her bag, and took out another bottle of tea.

"I wanna take a quick brake." Devlin looked to see five big Beowolves where approaching.

"You do that, I'm going to be right back." Duplica nodded, then opened the water bottle and used Angel's aura to heat up the tea.

She sighed as she drank the tea, looking at the dead body of the Antles.

It started to move.

"Um, Devlin?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you done with your business yet?"

"Halfway through, why?"

"Well, there might be more Antles." Devlin sighed.

"Not more of those giant insects."

"From how much the dead one is moving you might want to finish up." Duplica drank the rest of the bottle and put the bottle down.

"I'm going to try and hold them, though you need to hurry up."

"I'm almost done Duplica, just give me a minute."

"Right." Duplica took out her bow, and loaded five arrows, all glowing, and the ice crystal glowing as well.

"I am so going to need at least a five hour nap when I get back to the dorm." Duplica waited until the dead Antles was moved out of the way, then opened fire.

There was easily ten more Antles, though thankfully they all were stopped when most of their legs were frozen by the barrage of one hundred and fifty ice dust infused arrows.

Duplica sighed as most of her energy was drained from her, her knees soon growing weak and giving out.

"Thank god I have these." Duplica said as she took out two bottles of tea.

She drank the first, then tossed it at one of the Antles.

"Hey, don't just sit there. They'll kill you if you just stay there." Devlin said as he ran up to Duplica.

"I'm drained." Devlin looked curious, then looked to the valley of ice.

"Did you just."

"Semblance, I can turn one arrow into thirty light arrows, still can be affected by dust, but drains a hell of a lot out of me, I just shot one hundred fifty ice arrows, I'm drained."

Devlin nodded.

"Can you at least get yourself to safety?"

"I can try." Duplica used some wind dust to get herself up to a branch.

"I got it!"

"Alright, then sit tight, we still have roughly fifteen minutes left."

…

"And another one gone." Angel said confidently as she cut another Beowolf's head clean off.

"Another horde approaches." Cassidy replied.

"Alright, more for the slaughter." At that moment a few flares where dropped on the other side of the horde.

"That must be our pick up, right?"

"I think so, and we have to fight our way." Angel nodded.

"This should be easy." Cassidy smirked.

"My thoughts exactly." The two ran forward. Cassidy punching and kicking enemies out of her way, Angel quickly slashing and slicing to get the job done.

"Well, we're off!" They both grabbed onto a rope, and where brought up to the airship.

"Hey Jen, Rachel, Fu, and Nate, where's Duplica and Devlin?" Angel asked as the two climbed into the ship.

"We're going to pick them up now." Jen commented.

"Oh, alright, then let's go." The ship flew over the forest.

"I think I see them." Cassidy commented.

"Where are they?"

"Um…"

"What?"

"They are fighting an Antles Queen." Rachel and Jen looked at each other.

"Oh shit, how many Antles are there?"

"Currently ten are frozen, and five are active."

"Where are Devlin and Duplica, are they okay?"

"Devlin's attacking a little too close for comfort, in my opinion anyways. Duplica's Rachel's aura, and she's resting on a tree." Angel paused.

"So, everyone ready to drop down there?"

"Only if Rachel and I get to start off, we have this new idea that we wanna try out." Jen said.

"Alright, if you insist."

"We need you to help as well."

"What do I need to do."

"Well…"

…

"Huh, this queen demands a lot of attention, hey Duplica, how are you doing up there?"

"I'm not sure if I should use my semblance anymore, I don't think my chi is going to last much longer." Devlin sighed.

"Do you have any more of that tea?"

"No, I drank all of the tea when I needed to break the armor off the last ten Antles." Devlin paused.

"Where's our pickup?"

"I don't know, they said it would be apparent where they are, though I don't see anything that would make it obvious."

"Load the missile!" Duplica paused.

"I think I know where the airship is."

"Where is it?"

"Suppressing fire!" Before Duplica could respond a barrage of grenades came flying down, hitting several Antles and breaking off most of the armor, revealing the black under skin.

"Missile loaded!"

"Then point, aim, fire!" Duplica watched in confusion as she watched Jen flew by her like a bullet, ripping through a good few Antles before slamming both her fists into the Antles Queen. Jen managed to crack the armor before the Antles Queen hit Jen with a fierce head butt.

"Whoa!" Jen blinked before being launched through roughly five trees.

"Charge!" Angel shouted as she, Cassidy, Fu, and Nate landed on the ground.

"Hey, are you okay Duplica?" Rachel asked as she landed next to her.

"I'm fine, well, I mean I'm really low on chi right now, but when it comes to injuries I have none." Rachel nodded.

"I'd rest if I were you." Rachel commented as she reloaded her grenade launcher.

"Can do."

"Do you have any of that tea still? You know it can restore some chi right?"

"I know, I've already drank it all to break the armor of the previous Antles." Rachel nodded.

"There sure are a lot of them. I'm not surprised though, they are Antles after all, giant fucking buggers." Duplica lightly kicked her legs as she sat down on the branch.

"You should probably get to work, maybe avenge you're friends while you are at it." Rachel nodded.

"With pleasure." Rachel continued to unload, allowing Fu's drones and Angel's magic to take out the Antles.

"We need this armor to be broken!" Jen shouted as she stepped out of the way of one of the Queen's talons that was on its head.

"Hold on, let me." Nate jumped forward, using his semblance to power up his attacks. The queen went to attack, though Nate knocked the appendages back.

"Leave those to us!" Jen shouted as she parried another strike.

"Focus on breaking the bone armor!" Devlin ordered as he and Cassidy where attempting to the hold off the newly hatched Antles.

"Hold on." Rachel looked to see Duplica switch her weapon over to a sniper rifle.

"Duplica?" Duplica pointed the sniper at the Queen.

"The eye's aren't covered." Rachel paused.

"What should I do Duplica?"

"Keep weakening the Antles for the others, I'll try to help with the queen." Duplica pointed the sniper, then fired at the Grimm.

It made some strange shrieking noise as one it's left eyes was shot.

Duplica held onto her head.

"Duplica?"

"Ouch, Oum that kills."

"Oh no, your chi must be low." Duplica shook her head.

"I'm fine." Duplica fired once more.

The creature let out one more shriek of pain as another eye was shot.

"Ouch." Rachel looked over to Duplica to see the sniper vanish.

"Duplica?" Duplica sighed.

"My chi, it's pretty much dead." Rachel frowned.

"We need to end this soon guys!"

"You're telling me!" Jen shouted as she parried a few more stabs.

"We don't need anything pretty, just get the job done quickly, Duplica's chi is drained."

There was a pause.

"Alright, can do." Jen flicked her hands upward, both her gloves flew off her hands, and turned into two green pistols.

"Get a load of this!" Jen unloaded all she had into the Queen.

"That did something, though not too much, we're going to need something stronger." Nate jumped at the beast, though was knocked back by the talons.

"Shit, we can't get close enough to attack." Duplica paused.

"Rachel, draw fire on the Queen."

"But what about the others?"

"The bottoms of the Antles is vulnerable, not to the queen though, if you can break the armor, I'll deal the killing blow."

"But, I thought your chi is almost out."

"At this rate all of ours is going to run out before we make any progress, you know how aggressive these attacks can get, and we are just in the beginning stages of the fight." Rachel frowned.

"You have a good point. Alright, breaking the armor." Rachel pointed the weapon over to the Antles Queen.

"Everyone stay back, focus on the Antles!" Duplica shouted.

The rest of HRMY got away from the queen, though Team DNFC looked over to Devlin.

"You heard Duplica, make way!" The six got out of range.

"Fire!"

"Firing shot!" Rachel fired, there was a crack in the bone armor.

"Angel!"

"Yeah?"

"Stay under my branch please."

"Right, can do."

"The armor's broken Duplica, though only slightly, I can't keep firing at the Queen, the others are getting swarmed." Duplica nodded.

"Go help the others, I can take care of it." Duplica formed the sniper rifle one more time.

"With how much the screech hurt you I doubt you'll have more than one bullet." Duplica nodded.

"One's all I need." Duplica aimed, then fired.

The queen gave out one final screech before falling to the ground, dead.

Sadly however the combination of the screech and the lack of chi made Duplica faint, and fall off the tree.

"Duplica!" Rachel shouted.

"I gottcha." Angel commented as she caught Duplica.

"Hey look, the other Antles are retreating." Cassidy commented.

"That's how it works, the hive is brave until the Queen falls, then they retreat, to attempt to become one with another hive." Jen explained.

"Well, it looks like the day is done." Nate commented.

"Come on, let's get back, it's obvious that Duplica needs a nap." Angel said before she launched herself up to the airship.

"Mission complete?" Rachel asked Jen as they grabbed a rope.

Jen smiled.

"Mission complete."


	14. Delve Deeper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel realizes something interesting while she and Duplica continued to gather information about their past, though what was the new information?

Duplica groaned a little as she woke up.

"Ah, there we are, I was wondering if you where even taking a nap anymore." Angel greeted.

"How long was I out?"

"For roughly six hours, don't worry Professor Athena informed our other professors, they knew you were going to be out today." Duplica paused, then nodded.

"If that's the case, we don't have any more classes today, do we?" Angel shook her head.

"Hey," Jen started as she and Rachel walked into the room.

"Oh good, Duplica is awake, how are you feeling?" Rachel asked.

"I'm feeling fine, energized enough to last through the rest of the day." Duplica sat up, she was thankful that she was clothed in her school uniform at that point.

"Duplica?" Duplica got up and stretched.

"If that's the case then I think now's a reasonable time to go to the library." Rachel raised an eyebrow at Angel's comment.

"Wait, why do we need to go there?"

"Well, I've been meaning to look up some books written by a certain author recently and just haven't found the time to do so." Jen rose an eyebrow.

"Really? Which author was it?" Duplica paused, trying to remember the name.

The problem was that she only knew the woman's first name, nothing more.

Sense she found out about the women via flashback it was an adequate assumption to believe that her middle and last name was most likely a combination of both Gorm and Xiav.

"Um, I think the name is… Samantha Gorm Xiav?" Jen paused, she has a strong feeling that Duplica was trying to find out more about something pertaining to a flashback she had, though she didn't want to bother her with the full details.

It must have been a bad memory, meaning these Xiav's and Gorm's might be hostile towards her leader.

"Yeah, I know of that author, come on, let's go to the library." Duplica nodded as the group walked off to the library.

"She should be here, hold on, ah, here we are how about this novel?" Jen handed Duplica a book.

"It's a book about Grimm studies…" Angel rose an eyebrow.

"What other books of hers are there?" Jen took some more books down from the shelves.

"Let's see, Grimm studies, which is the one that is in your hand right now, Weapon studies, Dust studies, this lady is well known as a combat writer." Duplica nodded.

"So, out of curiosity, why do you need these books?" Jen asked.

Duplica paused, she didn't want to admit to killing the author, so she had to think of something else.

"I was told by Athena that if I want to be the best leader I possibly can, I need to better everything about myself, not only learn what my weaknesses are, but how to better myself so those weaknesses aren't a problem anymore."

"As in your timid nature?"

"Yes, and I thought a solution would be, if I am to afraid to fight close up, I might as well learn everything I can in relations to fighting so I can be able to help you guys with guidance rather than a physical helping hand." Jen nodded.

"Alright, so which book do you think you should read first?" Duplica paused.

"I think Grimm studies could prove useful." Jen nodded.

"Alright, we should check that one out first then." The group walked up to the counter.

"Hello, how may I help you today?"

"I want to check this book out." Duplica handed the book to the librarian.

"Huh, this is an interesting read, you can take the book, just make sure to return it alright?" Duplica nodded her head.

"Alright, then have fun reading."

"I will, thanks!" With that Duplica and the others turned, then exited the library.

"So, is there something else we are going to do today babe?" Angel asked.

"Um, well I think if we have the free time we should probably spar again, now that I have some new abilities and all." Angel nodded.

"Which one should we get done first?" Duplica paused.

"Well, I can read about these Grimm right now, you girls wanna tag along?" Rachel looked over to Jen.

"Um, I think me and Jen will pass, message us when you are going to spar, okay?" Duplica nodded.

"Alright, stay safe." Jen nodded.

"Course, well, see you later." Rachel and Jen walked away, soon to the tallest point of the school, which had quite the impressive balcony.

"So Rachel, why are we not hanging out with them?" Rachel paused.

"Well, I wanted to talk to you about something." Jen rose an eyebrow.

"About?"

"It's about the Evermore forest."

"Wait… what about the Evermore forest, the Antles?"

"Maybe…" Jen nodded.

"We handled that situation like we were supposed to, and I think in the end we did just fine." Rachel frowned.

"How come we succeeded now? Why not when our other friends were still alive?"

"Well, to be fair we weren't even in Venus then, we were under trained and had no clue what we were up against."

"I know… though I still feel like we should have been able to do more then what we did." Jen nodded.

"Well, we were able to sort of avenge them now, after all we just took down a whole hive." Rachel turned to look towards the Evermore forest.

"Yeah…" Jen looked off to the forest as well.

"I think it's best if we move on." Rachel looked at Jen curiously.

"Well, before you ask, I mean we shouldn't forget, though if there is anything our friends would want us to do, I know it wouldn't be to mope around about them dying."

"They would want us to kick as much ass as we can, in their name." Jen nodded.

"Come on, why don't we go get something to eat? I bet your hungry, cause I am."

…

"Hey." Duplica greeted Angel as Angel walked into the room.

"You're lucky I love you." Angel said in a stern tone, though there was a noticeable soft smile on her face.

"Oh, you did get me lunch?"

"Of course I did, why would I just get lunch for myself?" Angel placed a wrapped up sandwich on Duplica's bedside.

"So, did you get anything interesting from the book?" Duplica shook her head.

"I'm not recalling anything about this lady, and everything I have read about the Grimm we were already aware of." Angel frowned.

"This seems to be harder then we previously thought."

"Sadly, I want to know more about the Xiav's and who we used to be." Duplica put down the book, then unwrapped the sandwich.

"Hold on, let me see the book." Angel sat down next to Duplica, then opened the book.

She was looking for something, in some books the author writes a little blurb in the beginning or end about themselves, or why they wrote the book at least, she doubted this author would be any different.

She flipped through the first ten pages, nothing, nothing on the next ten as well.

Angel flipped to the back of the book, there was nothing pertaining to a bio on those pages either.

She sighed in annoyance, the only thing more annoying than having just a lead is having a lead that leads to nothing.

She flipped the last page.

"Huh."

"Wha?" Angel paused.

"You shouldn't talk with your mouth full." Duplica rolled her eyes.

"Fine." Angel looked back to the book.

"So, what caused you to say huh anyways?" Angel was about to show Duplica, though she got a call on her scroll.

"Hello? Yeah, alright, we could be, no I was just kidding Rachel, come on you have to admit that joke was at least kind of amusing, oh your no fun, alright, I'll tell Duplica, see you there." Angel hung up.

"Was that Rachel?" Duplica asked.

"Yeah, and apparently I'm not too funny."

"Really?" Angel pouted.

"I apparently almost gave Rachel a heart attack." Duplica rose an eyebrow.

"Well, whatever joke you made try not to make it again, we want our friends alive."

"Right, sorry."

"So, what did they want anyways?"

"They wanted to know if we are ready to spar sense they have nothing else to do right now." Duplica paused.

"Sure, I don't see why not." Duplica threw out the wrapper and the two walked to the sparring area.

"Are you girls ready?" Duplica asked as the two walked into the arena.

"Ready as ever I guess, so, what format are we battling in?" Jen asked.

Duplica paused.

"Well, in order for me to tell where you girls are at, which is way better then where I am, I think we should probably try out a free for all." The other girls nodded.

"If you think that would help us, then sure."

"Okay, let's all start an equal distance away from each other." The girls walked to different side of the arena.

"Alright, we should fight until our aura breaks like they do in real sparing, so keep your scrolls handy, we're starting in three, two, one, now!" Rachel started off by firing a grenade at Jen.

Jen rolled out of the way, though was blasted back by a second grenade.

Rachel fired two more shots before being knocked back by a large rock Angel sent her way.

Jen sprang back up, damage was present to her chi gauge, though it wasn't too much.

Jen turned and fired her claws at Duplica.

Duplica used Angel's semblance to form a rock wall in front of her. The claw blades stuck into the rock wall.

"How about we return to sender?" Duplica jumped up and used both feet to kick the rock wall.

The rock wall rocketed off towards Jen.

Jen blinked, wall soon slamming into her and sandwiching her in between one of the actual walls in the arena.

Duplica lowered the wall, being concerned that she did too much damage to Jen, though she was quickly relieved when she saw Jen jump out of her position, looking reasonably fine.

"You okay Jen?" Duplica decided to find out for certain.

"Yeah I'm fine, don't worry!" Jen shouted before rushing after Angel.

Duplica nodded, though she put up a thick rock wall all around her, if Angel was fighting Jen then that meant… nothing? Where was the attack she was waiting for?

Jen jumped forward, taking a slash at Angel.

She managed to hit, though Angel swinging her parasol at Jen stopped a second attack.

Rachel noticed the weakness and fired one more grenade from her bo staff.

Both girls were knocked back by the blow, though Angel used an impact behind her to launch herself back at Rachel.

She put one above Jen to slam her into the ground.

Rachel looked to see Duplica put down her rock barrier, now was the right time.

She turned to face Duplica, then fired a few grenades.

"Wrong move!" Rachel looked back, then was body slammed by Angel.

She used her semblance to easily grab and toss Angel across the arena and into a wall.

She quickly checked her scroll.

Angel's aura barrier, basically the force field, was at half its health, Jen's was around the same, Rachel's was a little lower, though Duplica's was near gone.

She made a mental note to make sure not to hit Duplica with another semblance blast before having to attempt to block Jen's attacks.

Jen punched forward, her attack speed was a lot faster sense she had claws, compared to a bo staff.

She ducked under another attack, blocking once she noticed Rachel was slamming her bo staff down.

The bo staff collided, both girls using their semblance to aid them.

"Damn, your semblance is good." Rachel commented.

"Yours as well, your quite the heavy hitter." Jen replied.

"Less talking ladies more fighting." Duplica commented as she sent Angel flying backwards with a lucky swing from a war hammer.

Duplica spun the weapon, the hammer part compacted into a much smaller drum. Duplica grabbed the drum part and spun it ninety degrees and pulled it down the weapon. While she was doing that the weapon turned more into a gun, extending its back stock, trigger, and even a fore grip. Duplica turned the drum back to its angle of origin, she had a light machine gun.

She started to unload on Jen, her semblance was on so sadly the attack wasn't doing to much of anything, though Rachel was able to lunge forward, hitting Jen in the stomach.

She soon lifted Jen into the air and unloaded four more grenades into Jen.

Jen's aura barrier was severely lowered.

Rachel would have continued, though Angel soon cutting her off with her parasol's blade got in the way.

"Hold on, I think that's good girls, we're all pretty low." The others stopped.

"You sure have improved Duplica." Angel complimented.

Duplica paused.

"I don't know, I could have done a thousand times better."

"But for now you did great, so is that it for today?"

"I think so."

"Okay, we should do that more often, gives you some well needed practice."

"Good point, maybe we'll do this again tomorrow?"

…

"How's it going Gold?" Silver asked as he walked into Gold's engineering bay, where he builds all his androids.

"I'm reviewing some old notes, the boss want's me to work on a new project." Silver rose an eyebrow.

"What's the new project?"

"It's way more complicated than you would think, and I really can't talk about it yet to those who do not have the clearance to hear about it."

"Does it concern Omega and Gamma?"

There was a pause.

"I guess you could say that."

"Alright, I guess I'll let you get back to your work, though you will tell me once you can."

"Course, though you're going to have to give me a while to do this though."

"Right, well, I'll busy myself with keeping the actual living members in line, I'll see you later." Silver walked out of the room.

Gold sighed.

"Wish I could tell the lad, oh well." Gold walked over to an AK-130 looking Android.

"He'll know soon enough, soon enough…"

…

"Hey Angel, can I ask you a question?" Duplica whispered as she and Angel lay in bed.

Jen and Rachel were asleep at the moment.

Angel lightly shifted in the bed before opening her eyes.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Duplica made a light shushing noise.

"I have a question I need to ask you."

There was a pause.

"Okay, though you are going to bed afterwards, what's the question?"

"What did you see in the book that startled you?"

"You know the emblem that's on your tome and on your dress?"

"The blue gem and the cyan lines? What about it?"

"It was on the back of the book, and it was labeled as a family crest." Duplica looked curious.

"What importance does this hold?"

"Well here's a question, was this emblem on anything of the others that we fought?"

"Hm, now that I think about it, yes, every person that we fought during a flashback had this emblem, though I'm not sure what this means."

"However we used to work for must have had a grudge with that family, maybe we can use this knowledge to our advantage?"

"How so?"

"Well, if we can find out more about the Xiav's or Gorm's then maybe we can find out more about their enemies, and who we could possibly have worked for before." Duplica paused, then nodded.

"Yeah, that could work." Angel smiled.

"And now that you learned that, you do your part of the deal, sleep." Duplica nodded.

"Do you think I'll learn something nicer about our past life eventually?" Angel smiled a little before putting an arm around Duplica.

"I sure hope so, I don't want to think we were just murderers when we were younger."

"Though what if we were?"

"There is no way that we were just murderers, I wonder if we were friends when we where little."

"I hope we were, though I hope we didn't meet while we murdered someone." Angel sighed before closing her eyes.

"There is no way we did, now go to sleep Duplica, we can find out more about this tomorrow."


	15. Family Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the information Duplica has learned from last chapter she gains another flash back, what does she and Angel do this time, did they murder someone? Or is it more tame this time around.

"Are you sure this is a good idea Angel?"

"Not really, though I don't think we have any other option, are you sure about what you found out recently?"

"Somewhat, I mean, I don't know for certain." Angel nodded.

"Then I guess we are going to go with the objective, terminate Jack Rot Xiav." Both girls walked up to a line that was in front of a bar of some sorts.

"Excuse me." Two rather burly looking men turned around to look at Duplica.

"Um, what's this line for?" One man looked to the other, then looked back.

"I think you've stumbled into the wrong bar love, they don't serve lightweights." Duplica frowned.

"I just wanted to know what this place was." The man sighed, a little smile soon appearing on his face, it appeared that he was going to try to play nice.

"This is Ol' Jack's Knuckle Dragger Bar, the roughest and toughest bar for miles around, fights are often there," The man noticed Duplica's slight look of fear.

"Never murder, just a lot of fighting, and with that in mind for everyone's safety only to toughest of the tough can enter this bar, and no offense ladies, but you don't seem tough enough."

"Why not?" The man snorted in hidden laughter.

"Look at yourself lass, tough people don't wear flowers in their hair or dresses on their bodies, and my is that one really short. Anyways looks of fear on anyone's face is basically forbidden." He turned to size up Angel, who stood her ground, a challenging look on her face.

The man smiled a little, though soon frowned.

"As for you, well, you seem to be attempting to create the needed attitude, and the leather you wear is also better than your friend's attempt, though in the end neither of you look like you are ready for this bar." Angel frowned.

"I guess we'll see once we get in there." The man shrugged.

"Suit yourself, though don't go crying to me when you get your ass handed to you." The line progressed until the man in front of the two walked up to the bouncer.

"Welcome to Ol' Jack's Knuckle Dragger Bar, how tough are you?"

"How tough am I, how tough am I? I had a bowl of Grimm bones for breakfast this morning." Duplica looked over to Angel when the man responded with this, a scared look on her face.

"Ha, yeah, so?"

"With Grimm blood as milk." The bouncer raised an eyebrow.

"Well shit, you're ready for the bar, come on in."

Angel looked at Duplica, who had a pleading look which basically screamed, 'can we please not do this,' written all over it.

Angel smiled a little before she and Duplica walked up to the bouncer.

"Welcome to, oh, I'm sorry girls but this is bar isn't something you would be interested in, we serve tough customers only." Angel frowned.

"You don't think we can be tough?" The man laughed.

"You don't look tough at all, I think you would die the moment you get into the bar, the lass clinging to your arm is proof enough," the man gestured towards Duplica, "but I'll tell you what," The man walked up to Angel.

"You two give me the hardest uppercut you have, if it's powerful enough, I'll let you into the bar." Angel smirked, wind magic at the ready.

"If you insist!" Angel charged a little, then let it rip.

The man rocketed upward, soon falling down only to be kicked back up to the same height by Duplica.

The man landed harshly on the ground, though he got back up rather quickly.

"You two are more than capable to hold your ground in the bar, I hope you two have a good time, just be warned, the men in this bar can be rather barbaric." Duplica rose an eyebrow, though Angel frowned while the two walked into the bar.

"What does barbaric mean?" Duplica asked.

"Nothing good if we don't play our cards correctly, now follow me, and remember, it's act or be acted upon." Duplica nodded.

"Okay then, if you say so." The two walked into the bar, a good few people's heads turned.

"Well well, I thought they didn't allow pipsqueaks into the bar." One man said as he stood well over two feet taller than Angel.

Angel rolled her eyes before using wind magic to slam all three guys out of her way.

"Fuck off." The two walked up to the bar.

"Go ahead, try your best to act tough." Angel said encouragingly to Duplica.

Duplica nodded, then looked over to the bartender.

"Give me a Deathstalker's Stinger." The bartender looked over, then rose an eyebrow.

"Are you sure you can hold this little lady?" Duplica frowned.

"If I was able to get into the bar I think I can handle the drinks." The man paused.

"Right, good point." Duplica turned to look around the bar while her drink was being made.

"Angel."

"Yeah?"

"Go look on the second floor, it looks promising." Angel looked.

"You mean that balcony looking part?"

"Yeah, look at the guy who's surrounded by the, probably anyways, only women in this bar." Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Looks like we found our target."

"Exactly." Angel nodded.

"Alright, I'll get going then."

"If he's more powerful than we thought use a wind kick to bring him down here, oh, and try not to die."

"No promises." Duplica pouted.

"That's not funny babe." Angel smiled a little before kissing Duplica on the cheek.

"I wouldn't die any other way then to grow old with you, don't worry I'll be fine." With that Angel disappeared into the crowd.

"Here you are, your drink." Duplica turned and took the drink.

"Thanks." Duplica turned back around, taking a sip from the drink.

Her eyes widened, something was weird about this drink, though it didn't actually have any parts of a Deathstalker in it, so she didn't know what was off about the drink.

She didn't want to not drink it, it would seem rude, yet at the same time she couldn't bring it to Angel and find out what's so weird about it.

"Well, take a gander at this." Duplica turned to see the three men had returned.

"A Deathstalker's Stinger huh? I doubt you could even hold one of those." One man walked to her right, one to her left, one stood in front of her.

"I'm telling you now little missy, drunks don't end out well in this bar." Duplica rose an eyebrow.

"Drunks?" The man laughed.

"Wow, you don't even know about drinking yet you got one?" Duplica paused, looking at the drink.

"No, I know what a drink is, seriously I doubt I could drink water for so long and not know what a drink is." The others paused.

"Right, what brings a girl as innocent as you into this bar? How did you even get past the bouncer?" Duplica frowned.

"Stop acting like I'm not worthy of this place, I got in didn't I?"

"Yes, and how is a big mystery, though if you hate us talking down to you why don't you prove to me that you are worthy of this place." Duplica paused.

"It's not going to be a three versus one, I doubt your delicate body could handle," before the man could continue to taunt Duplica he was blasted back by a blast of pure magic energy.

"Call me delicate again I dare you!" The man got back up, taking out his hammer.

"Alright, though you'll have to come closer to hear it!"

…

"Oh yes, wonderful, ah, who might you be?" Angel heard as she walked up to the owner of the bar.

"Just a customer, you're Jack, right?" Jack smirked.

"Sure are gorgeous, what might you be seeing me for?" Angel paused, she heard Duplica shout in what sounded like rage, then saw a man land next to her, from the looks of it he was out cold.

"Taking a breather from the brutes down there?" Angel nodded.

"I don't blame you, it's rare for a woman to get her way in here, and it is certainly rough in here, please, take a seat, we don't bite." Angel paused, then sat down next to Jack.

"So, how did you convince Barry to allow you into the bar?"

"He told me to hit him with the fiercest uppercut I could, and that is exactly what I did." Jack nodded, cracking a smile.

"The cyan haired one down there, is she a friend?" Angel looked to see Jack was pointing at Duplica.

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Well, it was a guess, one cute looking ass kicking girl must know another, right?" Angel shrugged.

"I guess that isn't bad logic."

"Hiya!" Jack laughed as two more people hit the balcony, then landed on the floor.

"Glorious." Jack looked over to Angel.

"Would you like a drink?" Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Huh? Uh, no thanks, just taking a breather that's all." Jack nodded.

"Not much of a drinker?"

"I just don't want to get drunk and lose, I shudder to think what would happen to me if I were to."

"It's rough here, though it is a nice training ground." Jack got up and walked to the end of the balcony.

"It's the place I built up, and it's the place I intend on keeping."

Angel got up, readying some wind magic for when she needed it.

"But enough about me, what about you?" Jack went to turn around, though a quick bash with a blunt weapon and the force of some wind magic knocked him down to the floor.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to cut you off!" Angel extended her parasol's blade, then sliced at Jack's direction.

Three fire missiles flew out of the blade and raged towards Jack.

"Ha, amusing, you want to fight?" Jack asked as he kicked someone else in the way of the flames then took out his pair of tonfa.

"It's only fair, I want to see how tough you are sense you own this place." Jack nodded.

"So be it." Jack turned, both in direction and his tonfa.

He struck Duplica across the face a couple times before landing the butt of both tonfa under her jaw.

Jack smirked before pressing a trigger on the end of the grip.

Two shot gun shells where projected into Duplica's aura before sending her flying into the ceiling.

Jack turned, though he had to quickly block a couple slashes from Angel's parasol.

"It's a two versus one huh?" Jack turned to see Duplica land on her feet, scimitar in one hand, and an impact crystal in another.

"It might be." Duplica tossed the crystal.

Once it landed Jack was rocketed towards her.

Duplica slashed forward, though Jack was able to block with one tonfa, then use the other to hit her with the butt of the weapon, then fire another shotgun round into her aura.

"I will warn you two that in the name of my bar I will not go easy on you just because you look cute." Jack noticed a few men looking like they wanted to join.

"Back off, this is our fight!" The whole bar backed off of the fight, sense Jack was the owner of the bar he had more say in what gets done in the bar then anyone.

"Duplica, are you okay?" Angel asked as Duplica got up.

"I don't like that guy's weapons."

"And it appears that it doesn't like you either." Duplica frowned.

"Not the time for jokes dear." Angel nodded.

"Right, in any case you should get your bow out, and stay behind me, this looks like it going to be a tough fight."

"You sure, I think your magic might be worth staying behind." Angel shrugged.

"We can try it your way first if you want, though if it gets tough we will have to try it out my way."

"Okay, I can live with that." Duplica took out her bow, then turned it into dagger mode.

"Use any element you think will help the most." Duplica commented before running towards Jack.

She slashed forward with her right handed dagger.

Jack blocked, soon having to block one more attack from Duplica's other dagger.

Jack smirked before pushing forward. Duplica stumbled a bit, one foot leaving the ground.

Jack moved forward, though Duplica used her remaining grounded foot to jump, then kick Jack in the head, jumping off his head as well.

"Clever girl." Jack commented as he rolled out of the way of a fire missile that Angel fired.

"Duplica, here!" Angel fired a yellow light missile at Duplica.

"Thanks!" Duplica ran forward, slashing both daggers at Jack.

Jack blocked, though he found it difficult to keep up with Duplica's sudden burst of speed.

"Have some of this!" Jack noticed some new magic being fired, then jumped back.

Duplica let the spell hit the floor, though the spell that was buffing her ran out.

Jack noticed then kicked forward.

Duplica was hit, though she was able to block a couple strikes from Jack's tonfa.

Jack hit Duplica with a fierce uppercut, then turned both tonfa around and unloaded on her falling figure, though odd enough he was receiving no kickback on his shots.

Angel frowned as she watched Duplica land on the ground.

"Alright, time for plan B!" Angel rushed forward.

Jack noticed and unloaded in her direction.

Angel opened her parasol, she also created a barrier spell with her second hand and put the barrier under the parasol.

She ran forward, though when she heard the firing stop she closed the parasol.

Jack had both tonfa in one hand, though he quickly punched the ground with his free hand.

A large energy blast formed around the punch, blasting Angel away.

Jack smirked as he loaded some bullets back into the tonfa.

"Okay, one more time!" Duplica and Angel got up, both sending the yellow light at each other.

"Angel!"

"Yes?"

"Slow mo!"

"On it!" Duplica rushed forward, changing aura and gaining her daggers once more.

Angel used some wind magic to launch herself up to the balcony.

"If Duplica want's slow motion, I guess I can give that to her." Angel opened the parasol and aimed towards Jack, and fired.

"Even with this dust of yours you're not quick enough to keep up with me, face it, you and your friend are going to lose." Duplica looked behind her, then jumped out of the way.

Jack looked, some dark purple missile was racing at him, four smaller dark purple missiles for spinning around the midriff of the main missile.

Jack jumped back, though the four smaller missiles changed course and all of them hit Jack.

"Check mate!" Duplica and Angel rushed forward, both taking advantage of their boosted speed, and his lowered speed.

"I think this is it!" Duplica shouted as the two kicked Jack into a pillar, which broke on impact.

"I'll confront, do you have the getaway ready?" Duplica nodded.

"Page is placed." Angel nodded, then walked up to the guy.

"So, tell me blonde, are you a customer, or are you Prime's crony?" Angel paused.

"Ah, so you are who I assumed you are, I didn't know two where needed, guess to say I'm not honored, but more disappointed." Jack gestured towards Angel's blade.

"Best do it now, I have no need to be in this world any more, not sense I'm cursed with the traitor's blood." Jack closed his eyes.

"Angel, what's the hold up?" Angel paused.

"Well, whatever that means I guess this is doing both of us a favor, so um, you're welcome?" Angel paused, knowing this was not the right thing to do, she then swiped.

"Angel now!"

"Right!" Angel ran over to Duplica and grabbed her hand, Duplica quickly teleported, getting them out of the bar before they could be attacked.


	16. Bastard's Betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel finds out something strange late one night, and Platinum moves his plans ahead by one step.

"Whoa, Duplica." Angel covered Duplica's mouth as Duplica woke up, she was shouting.

Duplica looked around, then looked to Angel.

"Are you okay?" Duplica paused, then nodded.

"Okay, good." Angel removed her hand from Duplica's mouth.

"What's with the shouting?" Jen sleepily asked.

"Sorry, Duplica had a nightmare that's all." Jen nodded before her head connected with her pillow once again.

"Duplica, what's wrong?" Angel whispered.

"I had another flashback."

"You did huh?" Duplica nodded her head.

"What was it about?"

"What do you think?"

"Did we murder someone again?"

"Well, you're not wrong." Angel paused.

"Oh, that's uh, that's just great."

"I did manage to learn something though."

"What did you learn?"

"It's about the Xiav's."

"Alright, though what is it?"

"The man we where after, Jack Rot Xiav, said something about having the 'traitors blood,' I have no idea what he means by that though it has some importance sense when he realized that we were sent to kill him he allowed us to, in fact he asked you to kill him. He said something about 'having the traitor's blood' in him, I'm not sure what to think of that though." Angel paused, laying on her back and staring up to her bunk.

What did any of what Duplica said mean?

Jack just allowed her to kill him?

Even if she was told to, it was still weird to know that the enemy wanted her to kill him, who would just allow death to happen once they realized it was in front of them?

Another point she had to question was about the blood.

The traitor's blood?

What kind of hardship did the man's family face in order for part of his blood to be tainted?

"I'm not sure what to think either, do you know what family's that he belonged to?" Duplica paused.

"Well, it depends, do you think that Rot might be a family?" Angel paused.

"I don't know, though for the sake of trying to understand what's going on I wouldn't put that out of the question." Angel looked to see Duplica was on her side, looking at her.

Angel positioned herself so she was looking back at Duplica.

"I just don't understand, what did Jack mean by traitor's blood?"

"I don't know either Duplica, I'm going to need some time to think about this." Duplica yawned.

"Hey, before you go to sleep, can you let me out, I need to use the bathroom." Duplica giggled a little.

"Don't forget to wear something." Angel blushed a little.

"I haven't forgot once yet."

"Yeah, though please don't let this be the first time." Angel smiled.

"Don't worry, I won't." Angel out of bed and put on her dress and boots before walking to the bathroom, though something was still on her mind.

Was Rot perhaps a family, was Rot a part of the man's blood?

Maybe that's what he meant by traitor's blood, sense he had Xiav blood in him already.

Though that was a big stretch, that was just his middle name, unless someone else had the middle name, or last name, of Rot then she couldn't assume that it was a last name, let alone a family name.

Assuming things and having it be wrong would help little for recovering memories, if anything it would throw the process back a bit.

Angel sighed, soon walking out of the bathroom.

"This isn't making any sense to me, and sadly it isn't making any more sense to Duplica, I guess it's best to just get some rest, I can think about this in the morning." Angel turned, though something caught her eye.

A strand of someone's hair retreating behind a wall was what she saw.

Angel rose an eyebrow, who was that?

Looking wouldn't hurt, so Angel walked over to where the person was standing, and peered around the corner once more.

There was someone looking at her, though they rounded the corner before Angel could find out who it was.

"Hey, wait a minute." Angel ran over to where the person was, though yet again all she saw was a strand of pink hair.

Angel rose an eyebrow.

"Why was this person looking at me, more importantly, why did they run when I wanted to talk?" Angel paused, standing where she was for a few minutes.

"I doubt that they are waiting for me to run after them, I should probably keep my eyes peeled for them though." Angel turned and walked back to the room.

"Did you fall in or something?" Duplica sleepily asked as Angel climbed back into the bed.

"I would be wet if I fell in silly."

"And probably really mad, so, what took so long?" Angel paused.

"Nothing really, I just thought I saw something weird that's all."

"That's all? What did you think you saw?"

"I don't know, I thought I saw some pink haired person looking at me, weird enough when I pursued the person they kept running, I'm not sure why though."

"Huh, that sounds creepy, did you notice anything else about this person other than their hair color?"

"No, I didn't get the time they moved out of my view quicker then I could find anything else out."

"So, you have someone stalking you or something?"

"I don't know, I doubt it's that drastic, though it seems like I have an observer or something." Duplica rose an eyebrow.

"That will soon be a stalker."

"I don't know, though I'll keep my eyes peeled to make sure." Duplica paused.

"It's my eyes that will be most peeled, no one is going to stalk you without facing me." Angel smiled seeing Duplica act like her was actually wicked cute.

"Okay, though you should try to be well rested for when that happens yes?" Duplica paused, then yawned.

"Now that you mention it, I'm sleepy." Angel laughed a little.

"Then go to bed sleepy head." Duplica paused.

"Only if you join me."

"Was planning on it."

"Okay, good." Duplica closed her eyes, both girls falling asleep soon after.

…

"Hey Gold, how's your end of the plan working out?" Platinum asked as he walked into Gold's engineering bay.

Gold smirked.

"Project S should be back any minute now." Platinum rose an eyebrow.

"Project S?"

"I know you hate to hear this, but, wait for it." Platinum sighed.

"Where is this, 'project S,' anyways?"

"Not here, though she's coming back." Platinum laughed.

"I know it's a creation of yours, but it's a robot, how could it be a girl?"

"It looks like one." Platinum laughed.

"Looks like one? Gold you are cooped up in this little bay for a majority of your days, do you even know what a girl looks like?"

At the moment Platinum heard something land behind him.

He turned, then rose an eyebrow.

"Is this who you where talking about?" Gold smirked.

"Ah, right on time, meet project S." Platinum paused, taking a better look at S.

She looked to see around five feet tall, she wore a purple hoodie, boots, a pink dress that ended around knee length, and purple leggings that end right above her ankles. She had long pink hair and bright cyan iris's.

"So, you're project S huh?" S didn't respond.

"Hey Gold, you didn't teach your robot some manners?" Gold paused.

"Um, well this is kind of awkward to admit, but this is a kind of a beta, the other projects where Alpha's if you will, I got everything to work, even copied a semblance, as hard as that was, the only problem is that this one can't speak, the audio functions had a weird glitch when I powered S on, I don't know how to fix it." Prime looked to see S curtsy to him.

He nodded, then frowned.

"You better have a way to fix that audio function Gold, if all of these projects can't speak how are they going to fight well as a team?" Gold paused.

"Right, don't worry it won't take a whole lot of time to fix this bug, it will only be a day or two before I can activate the others." Platinum sighed.

"Just get them ready as quick as possible."

"Can do."

 


	17. Grimm Reminders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn more about Jen's past, and her family life.

"Duplica." Duplica snapped her head from her drawings back up to the front of the room.

"Um, yes professor David?" The professor smiled a little.

"Everyone in this class has had something to say in the class, and as much as it is for the professor to call a student out, I just want to know, do you have any questions that might need my help clarifying, or do you understand everything?" Duplica frowned a little.

The professor noticed.

"Sorry, I hope I didn't come off as acting like a douche bag or something." Duplica smiled a little, if there was something everyone could respect about David, it was that he was a lot less formal.

"No, I was just thinking of something." The professor nodded.

"You don't have to ask a question if you don't,"

"How did you become a professor?" There was a pause.

"Uh, sorry, I couldn't think of a question pertaining to the class." David chuckled.

"That's fine, how did I become professor? Well, I used to go to this school before you, a few years ago to be exact. When I was a senior Two Goliath's rampaged through the school, me and the team sent them packing, so in the end we were all offered jobs as professors, so that's how we got our jobs here."

"Who else is part of your team?" David smiled.

"Well now, if I told you who they are that would ruin the mystery now wouldn't it?" Duplica paused, then nodded.

"You'll just have to ask the other teachers that question, several students before you have, and they all found answers, mysteries are numerous in this world my dear, though it's up to you to want to solve them." The professor looked at the clock.

"Well, that's the end of the class kids, the homework is simple, just read the next passage in the book, class is dismissed."

"Wow, he and his team defeated two Goliaths?" Duplica asked as the team walked out of the class.

"To think, by the time we graduate from this school we will be able to do the same." Jen replied.

"I wonder how many Antles they could kill before breaking a sweat." Rachel wondered aloud.

"I bet they could take out five hives before they broke a sweat."

"Really? Only five Duplica?"

"Well how much do you think they could take out before breaking a sweat Jen?"

"I don't know, maybe six?"

"Only one more, I was thinking ten."

"I don't know Rachel, that's a bit intense."

"Only a bit though, how many do you think we could take down once we are Seniors?"

"Well, we if took down one with low amounts of chi when we are freshman, then maybe five?" Duplica suggested.

"Wait, this is without killing all the Antles?" Jen asked.

"Yeah, the Queen is what is most important, it's like chess."

"Um Duplica dear it's the King that matters the most."

"It's the king?" Angel nodded her head.

"Huh, no wonder I've been playing that game wrong…"

"If that's the case then ten is not as crazy as I thought beforehand."

"Ten what's is not as crazy as you thought?" Devlin asked as he started to walk next to the team.

"Antles hives, we were talking about how many Antles hives we would be able to slay once we graduate from this school."

"Ten, don't you think that's a bit intense, what about the Antles themselves, not just the queen?"

"Well, they're not armored on the bottom, I could easily impale them with some rock magic."

"And I can use my semblance to crack the Queen's armor."

"I can protect the others by using my semblance to take whatever hits they send, or parry with my claws."

"And I can use a multitude of, well, everything I have to finish off the Queen once Rachel breaks the armor."

"That's a good tactic, though ten of them?" Duplica shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, you never know, right?"

"I suppose so, well the rest of my team is finishing their class, so what are you girls doing?"

"Kind of just hanging out right now, we've got nothing else to do right now, though I was thinking maybe we as a team would do some sparing, you can join if you want to." Devlin nodded.

"Sure, let's go." The five walked over to the sparring arena.

"Hm, it looks like Athena's class is already using the arena, what else could we do?" Jen shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, I think I'm going to study in the library for a bit."

"Okay, have fun, er, no, don't have fun, that gets in the way of studying. So have 'fun,' studying fun, um, you know what never mind, just, study." Jen laughed.

"I got what you meant, and I'll do just that." With that Jen walked off.

"Man, I had no idea what I was talking about right there." Duplica said.

"So, what should we do now?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know, maybe go downtown? I need a new book to sketch in."

…

"Hm…" Jen hummed as she picked out a book from Samantha Gorm Xiav.

She wanted to know what Duplica's flashback was if she remembered this author, though at the same time she didn't ask Duplica because if Duplica didn't share it with the group it had to be something really bad, and she didn't want her leader to recount whatever happened.

"Now to do some research." Jen walked over to a table and opened the book.

"Can I help you?" Jen looked up.

"Oh, hey Fu, I didn't see you there."

"Studying?"

"I guess you can say that yes." Fu rose an eyebrow.

"What do you mean by that?" Jen paused, she didn't think telling Fu was a good idea, it didn't really concern her.

"Uh, nothing, I mean nothing by that." Fu rose an eyebrow.

"Right, whatever, so what are you reading?"

"A weapons crafting book."

"You already have a weapon though, are you planning on building another?"

"Not really." Jen paused, she had a feeling Fu was trying to find out what she was doing, so she decided to try and take the conversation and take it down a different route.

"Though it doesn't hurt to brush up on how we build stuff, I never really built my weapon anyways."

"You didn't? Then how did you get your weapon?"

"My father made it for me when I was a little kid, I wasn't too crazy about the claws to be honest, though I guess I got used to them in the end." Jen flipped a page.

"My father was really good with weapons, in both crafting and picking out weapons for actual fighters, so I guess he knew more about what kind of weapon I would be best with later on in my life then I did." Fu rose an eyebrow.

"With how your semblance works what other kind of weapon would work for it?"

"Well, to be honest Gauntlets would, though when I was younger I wanted to wield a bo staff with duel wield shotguns.

Fu rose an eyebrow.

"So, how would those work?"

"Well, the shotguns are semiautomatic, the ends of the guns could straighten out and be connected, making a bo staff."

"So how did you think you could wield two shotguns, that kickback wouldn't be something to duel wield." Jen frowned.

"Yeah, that's what my dad said to."

"Having two bo staffs in a team would be strange as well."

"I guess, I feel like those are less plentiful in teams compared to like swords or something."

"My team doesn't have swords."

"Yeah, Duplica wields a sword, I know of a lot of teams in this school that has at least one user who wields a sword." Jen flipped a page.

"So what are you looking for in that book anyways? If you already have a weapon, and a father who can teach you how to make weapons, then what are you looking for in that book?" Jen paused, soon flipping another page.

"Well, just because I have my weapons doesn't mean I shouldn't learn how to make them better."

"How to make them better?"

"Sure, for example when my claws are in melee mode I use my bullets to fire out the actual claw parts of the gloves, they act as boomerangs which is also very nice." Fu nodded.

"What could you to do those to make them better? They already sound like they had some upgrades to just being normal claws." Jen frowned.

"I don't know, I was thinking what if I put dust bullets into my claws?"

"What would that do?"

"I'm not sure, though I guess I can ask Angel about that, she knows a lot about dust effects." Fu rose an eyebrow.

"So you are reading about upgrades you don't know how to make happen?" Jen shrugged her shoulders.

"People can dream Fu."

"Why not ask your father instead of Angel since he builds weapons for a living?" Jen frowned.

"I haven't heard from him or my mother a year."

"Why not?" Jen sighed.

"When I was younger I lived in Vale, my father and mother trained me to be a huntress up till around when I was thirteen years old, my father was wealthy, and decided that sense Apollo was one of the best starting schools there was he sent me over here, sadly I haven't heard from him or my mother sense I graduated from Apollo." Fu rose an eyebrow.

"Your father was wealthy, what do you mean was?"

"Well, I don't know if he's even still alive, neither of them seem to want to talk to me anymore, not sense the DM incident."

"The DM incident?" Jen sighed.

"I don't really want to talk about that." Fu paused.

"You seem to be taking the desertion of your parents a lot better than I would picture someone would." Fu decided to keep her past a secret for now.

"Well, I don't know, I still love my parents and all, though I don't mind my time away from them." Jen closed the book.

"My father was disappointed that I don't understand weapons crafting like he does, my mother was fine, though my father seemed to be always disappointed with me, I guess the DM incident got him mad enough to stop talking to me."

"What about your mom?"

"I don't know, I don't know what's going on with either of them, wish I could find out." Jen sighed, taking a pistol out of its holster.

Fu paused, she would never have guessed that Jen was the one with the family issues, she always seemed content and carefree with everything, much different then Fu was.

Fu made a mental note that Jen still had it way easier than she did, though to be fair she didn't love her parents, not in the slightest, Jen still does.

"Well, either way I think I'm going to go ask Angel about my claws, maybe I'll see you and your team at dinner?" With that Jen got up and walked off.

"Hm, I wonder what the DM incident is all about."

…

"Finally, some time to spend together." Duplica said as she sat down on her bed.

"I was thinking the same thing." Angel agreed as she sat down next to Duplica.

"I'm kind of surprised that you didn't go to the gym with Devlin and Rachel." Angel shrugged her shoulders.

"Eh, I'm not cut for the gym." Angel flexed.

"See? No muscle." Duplica laughed.

"More then I have." Duplica flexed, putting her arm next to Angel's.

Duplica started to giggle.

"What?"

"We don't have a lot of muscle." Angel smiled, then began to laugh.

"Yeah, we don't." Angel smiled, then hugged Duplica.

"Anyways, between lifting weights, which is embarrassment due to my figure mixed with sweating a lot, or spending time with you, spending time with you is a way better option." Duplica smiled.

"Yeah, that way you won't be all smelly." Angel laughed.

"Well, that's one bonus, there's more than just that though."

"Oh really? Name a few."

"Well, I won't be lifting heavy weights that probably wouldn't do too much for me, my body won't be sore tomorrow, I won't be tired, and most importantly," Angel brush her hand through Duplica's hair.

"I can spend time with the girl I love." Duplica smiled.

"That's always a bonus, isn't it?" Angel made a small throat laugh before both girls laid down on the bed.

"Of course it is." Angel rolled, so she was on top of Duplica.

"Have I ever told you how cute you are?" Duplica paused, puzzled looked on her face.

"Well, you've told me a few times before, though I don't know how many." Angel smiled, then hugged Duplica.

"Well, I'll say it again, you're cute, you know that?"

"Aw, stop it Angel, I didn't have count to begin with, this is making me even more off count." Angel smiled.

"Okay, you're adorable."

"Aw, you said that multiple times to." Angel heard the door open, then close.

"Uh, hey guys."

"Oh, uh, hey Jen." Angel said as she rolled off Duplica.

"How are you two doing?"

"We're going good, you know, just hanging out."

"Yeah, where are the others?"

"Well, Devlin and Rachel went to the gym, Nate's probably already there, and Cassidy probably tagged along, I don't know where Fu is." Jen nodded.

"So, what are you doing Jen?" Duplica asked.

"I don't know, I'm feeling like taking a nap."

"Oh, okay, we'll be real quiet." Jen sighed as she climbed into her bed.

"Thanks." Duplica gave Angel a worried look, then yawned.

"I'm going to take a nap as well." Angel smiled.

"Okay, I'll be studying if you need me." Angel went to get up, though Duplica hugging her stopped her.

"Huh?"

"If you move, then who am I going to hug?" Angel sighed.

"Fine, I'll study in bed."

Jen rolled to her side.

Thanks to Fu the thought of her parents where fresh in her mind, though she managed to block it out long enough to fall sleep.


	18. Realizations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mystery of the Xiav's is partially explained in this chapter, and we look at a new aura Duplica's copied.

"There we go." Angel said happily as Duplica managed to block a fourth slash she sent at her.

"Did I do good?" Duplica asked, holding onto her whip sword.

"You did great, I can see the improvements." Duplica smiled, the two withdrew their weapons.

"Though if I may suggest, next time focus more on disarming with that weapon, while you have long range you might as well try to use it to your advantage." Duplica nodded.

"Alright, are you already for another round?"

"Sure." Angel extended her blade.

"Good, then prepare to fight!" Angel rushed forward, slashing towards Duplica.

Duplica parried with her sword, blocking and countering Angel's stabs and slashes.

Angel smirked, quickly opening her parasol.

Duplica noticed and jumped backwards, turning her sword into whip form all the while.

"I hope this works!" Duplica swung, the whip flying past Angel's parasol's shield and snaked around the base.

Duplica pulled, she was surprised as she managed to make Angel stumble forward.

Angel used some wind magic to blast herself off the ground and flying towards Duplica.

Duplica quickly changed her whip back into sword form, though she wasn't able to block Angel's kick in time.

"Nice move Duplica." Angel commented as she landed, Duplica was getting back up.

"I'm still not able to hit you." Duplica said unhappily.

"Well to be fair that aura's weapon would not beat my parasol, it's meant to deal with swords and weapons of the sort."

"If you want you can fight one of us instead." Jen offered, she, Rachel, and Team DFNC where watching.

Duplica shook her head.

"I want Angel to help me." Jen and Rachel smiled at each other.

Jen made a small throat laugh.

"Alright, if you insist." Duplica looked back to Angel.

"Do you want to change weapons?" Duplica paused, a chakram appearing in her hands.

"I wanted to try this weapon out." Angel nodded.

"Okay, try it." Duplica paused.

"Um, how do I use this thing?" Angel paused.

"What is that even?"

"I have no clue."

"How do you use that thing?"

"Well, I asked you that first, also if I don't even know what this thing is it is clear that I wouldn't know how to use it dear."

"Right, well it looks like a giant bladed ring, maybe you spin that thing a lot?" Duplica looked at the weapon.

"Huh, there are two clips on the inside, and two buttons, I wonder what these do." Duplica pressed the first button.

The weapon straightened out, the blade disappearing, and instead forming into a hammer at the end of the stick.

Duplica pressed the second button.

The middle of the weapon opened, forming a trigger behind the two magazines, the hammer disappeared, instead it turned into iron sights and two barrels, turning the weapon into an assault rifle.

"So what is that aura's semblance anyways?"

"Not sure, hold on." Duplica stood in place for a few minutes.

"Something wrong Duplica dear?"

"Um, I'm not sure how to find out this thing's semblance."

"Hold on, try doing something to this rock." Angel stomped the ground and a rock popped out.

"Um, hiya?" Duplica punched toward the rock, though nothing happened.

"Huh?" Angel paused.

"Maybe it's too far away? Hold on, let me bring it closer." Angel picked up the rock.

"Oh wow, this rock is a lot lighter than I expected it to be." Angel brought it over to Duplica.

"Here, this is a lot closer, try now." Duplica punched towards the rock once more.

"Holy Oum!" Angel shouted in surprise as the rock got so much heavier.

"Whoa, what was that about?" Duplica asked as Angel got back up, the rock's weight was enough to pull her down.

"It seems like you can change the things weight."

"Hey Duplica, mind slimming me down by a couple pounds?" Jen joked around.

"You're already kind of skinny, why would you want to lose more weight?" Fu asked.

"I don't know, it would be nice to be lighter on my feet. Anyways it was supposed to be a joke."

"I don't think that would make you look any slimmer Jen, this rock isn't any bigger, it just made the rock denser. But I have to say that semblance certainly rocks." The group made a collective sigh.

"Angel, I am so teaching you how to make better jokes, but anyways getting back to the point I think I know how I could use this weapon properly." Angel rose an eyebrow.

"How?"

"Well, first I need to try something out." Duplica put her hands on the rock, then picked it up.

"Ah, so what I wanted to find out was correct."

"What is it?"

"Hold on." Duplica dropped the rock.

"If I can change the weight of things, I have a question that you should answer, do you think that I could reduce the rock's weight to zero?"

"I doubt the semblance is powerful enough for you to actually reduce an objects weight to zero." Duplica smiled.

"Oh how wrong you are." Duplica changed the weapon back into hammer mode, then slammed it into the ground. Several rocks flew into the air, though did not return to the ground.

"Wait, what?"

"I told you, I can make objects weigh nothing."

"That's really cool, I bet you could launch those rocks for some heavy damage."

"That's what I was thinking."

"Hey, love birds, class is starting soon." Duplica looked up to Cassidy.

"Okay, thanks." Duplica deformed her weapon.

"So, after class shall we find out more about your new weapons?" Duplica smiled as she kissed Angel.

"Sure, though we need to sit though Nabu's History class first." Duplica turned to walk off, though something stopped her.

"Um, dear you might want to kiss me again."

"Why?"

"Apparently you can make more than objects weigh nothing, cause I'm kind of floating right now." Duplica turned to look.

"Holy, Angel!"

"Hold on, I'll make my way over to you." Angel used to wind magic to gently glide over to Duplica.

"I'm sorry." Duplica apologized as Angel landed her feet on the ground.

"It's okay Duplica, though that changes how I think about how you could fight with that thing."

"Yeah, what's nice is that I can do that in a short to medium long range, so if anything tries to get to close I can send them flying, literally this time around." Angel smiled.

"Come on, let's get to class."

…

"So, now that we just about summed up our early wars as a race and our fight against the Grimm, how about we get a lot more modern this time around, so today we will start with something more interesting, and that is the history of the people who lived in the Evermore Forest." There was a murmur between the people in the class.

"So, as you all already know that forest is inhabited by no humans anymore, Grimm have claimed that land their own and are keeping a firm grip on it. No one knows where the people have gone now, though it's sure that they are not in the forest anymore."

"So does that mean that the rumors are false?" Duplica whispered to Angel.

"I guess, I don't know."

"The Professor's wrong." Rachel whispered to Jen.

"Oh, we know that for a fact."

"Though before that day roughly two years ago from what we could gather there used to be a large village of people who lived in the heart of the forest, in the beginning anyways." Duplica held in a gasp, her head hurt.

"Duplica?" Angel whispered.

"I, I'm fine Angel, don't worry." Angel paused.

"If you insist."

"Through time however it seemed that people where moving out of the forest, fearing the constant attacks from the Grimm, until three groups remained." Duplica grabbed her head.

"Duplica?" The teacher looked over.

"What is it Angel?"

"I'm fine Angel, I'm fine."

"I doubt that, here." Angel put a bright light on Duplica's head.

"There, do you feel any better?"

"Kind if, yeah, that's helping."

"Do you need to go to the infirmary?"

"I, I don't think so Professor." That was a lie, Duplica felt light headed and dizzy. She had a feeling she knew why, though she didn't know for certain.

"Alright, if you insist, well these three groups had their disagreements, all three wanted to stay in the forest, though two of the groups didn't get along with the other, so the third group decided to leave and make their own village. Eventually the three got into a big fight, and that's all that was documented."

"What were the names of these groups?" A student asked.

"Well each group was a family, and those families where the Rot's, the Gorm's, and the Xiav's." Duplica gasped, the pain in her head was unbearable, it felt like her head was being split in two.

"Duplica?" The group looked to see Duplica was grabbing her head with a pained look on her face.

"Duplica, here let me." Angel went to continue her healing, though before she could Duplica passed out.

"Duplica!" Angel shouted.

"Oh shit, is she okay?"

"I don't know, come on we need to bring her to the infirmary."

"Okay, best make it quick as well!"


	19. The Final Piece

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A decent chunk of Duplica and Angel's past is revealed/explained in this chapter, though this is just a fragment, what secrets do they find out this chapter?

'The traitor's blood, what did Jack mean by that?' Duplica thought to herself as she and Angel where taking a ride on the local train.

"Something bothering you?" Angel asked, Duplica had a perplexed look on her face.

"I'm just confused."

"About what?"

"What Jack said to you when you… well, anyways I don't have the slightest clue on what it means."

"The blood?" Duplica looked out the window.

"Yeah, the blood."

"Ah, sadly I don't have a clue either." Angel looked outside.

"Hm, it must be cold outside, the glass is nothing but ice." Duplica frowned.

"It's days like this that I wish my outfit had a coat or jacket with it." Angel smiled, soon taking off her leather jacket.

"Here, use mine then." Angel put her jacket over Duplica's shoulders.

"Are you sure? Then you're going to be cold." Angel shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm always using my aura, you have like nine to switch between, and you do just that. I can just heat myself up." Duplica nodded, then put her arms through the sleeves.

She made a small throat laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"My arms are shorter than yours, look I can barely see my fingers." Angel smiled, soon rolling up the sleeves of the jacket.

"There, is that better?" Duplica smiled.

"Sure, thanks, oh wait." Duplica frowned.

"My legs are going to be cold." Angel sighed.

"Even if I wore pants I think that would be more awkward to give to you."

"Neither of us wears pants."

"Yeah, so the question of who wears the pants is kind of left unanswered."

"I feel like you would sooner wear pants then I would." Angel laughed.

"That's not what the phrase means Duplica." Duplica smiled, then winked.

"I know, should we go by skirt length maybe?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, say you wear the dress with the longer skirt or something?" Angel shrugged her shoulders once more.

"No clue." Angel looked to the other side of the train, and noticed two strange things, there was no one on the same train car, and the window wasn't iced like the window behind them was.

"Hm, hey, why don't we sit on the other side of the train? It's window isn't iced." Duplica paused.

"Sure." The two girls got up, and walked to the other side of the train car.

"Why is that other window iced up?" Duplica asked as she sat on Angel's lap.

"Not sure, though maybe the heat on that side was broken or something." Angel looked over to the window, both windows were completely frozen.

"Um, Duplica are you using my aura?"

"No, why?"

"Well as you could probably tell I am using my fire element, and not my ice one, so why is this window frozen as well?" Duplica got up.

"I don't know, maybe if we heat it up it will melt the ice?" Duplica conjured a fireball and tossed it at the window.

"Whoa, Duplica lets not throw fire at glass." Angel said.

"Okay, hey, wait, the ice isn't melting." Angel rose an eyebrow.

"It must be colder outside then we thought." Before Angel or Duplica knew what was going on the window busted open, and a figure jumped in and threw Angel out of the train.

"Angel!" The figure jumped out as well.

"Angel!"

…

Angel slammed into a snow bank, rolling through it, breaking out of the bank and sliding across a pond.

"Ouch, shit, what was that about?" Angel asked herself as she got up.

She felt her scroll going off.

"Angel, Angel can you hear me? Please respond."

"I'm fine Duplica, where are you?"

"I'm out in this snow bank, look I can find you soon enough, but please, be careful, there is something that's trying to attack you." Angel paused, grabbing her parasol.

"Do you know where it is?"

"Not a clue, I saw it attack you, then jump out of the train." Angel sighed.

"Alright, try to find me as soon as you can, I don't have a good feeling about this."

"Can do, please be careful."

"Don't worry, I will." Angel hung up.

"Hm, to fight on a slippery pond in the middle of a blizzard, I'm not in a good position." Angel walked off the pond.

"At least that will help a little." She looked around.

"Hm, now I've got to worry about finding whoever attacked me." Angel created a fire ball in her hand, though the snow was connecting, melting the snow and extinguishing the flames.

"Damn, I can't see like this, there has to be a different way to see." Angel looked to see a few ice spears fly out of the snowy veil.

"Whoa!" Angel blocked with her parasol's shield.

"Hm, where did this come from?" Angel closed her shield.

"The enemy has to be hiding somewhere behind this thick snow fall, but where?" Angel put her parasol on her back.

"I can't see past this, maybe if I dispel it for a few seconds?" Angel brought her arms close to her body, charging up some wind magic.

She looked to see a figure jump out of the think snow fall.

"Well, here goes!" Angel thrust her arms out, allowing a huge wind blast to send both the snow and the figure flying away from her.

"Hey, Angel!" Angel looked to see Duplica sprint up to her.

"Hey, you did find me."

"Yup, ready to get out of here?"

"Sure, I don't think fighting this person would be wise." Angel held onto Duplica's hand, though right when Duplica used her teleport skill the person had punched her, so she teleported with Angel and Duplica.

"Angel!" Duplica shouted as the three teleported into the train.

Angel was knocked into a wall, the person went and grabbed her throat.

"Hey, back off!" Duplica shouted as she hit the woman on the head with her mallet. The shotgun blast was fired and she swung to her left, knocking the unknown woman into the wall.

"Who the fuck are you?" Duplica asked the woman.

"Why should I tell you? All you need to know is that you have brought injustice to my family, and now, you will die." The woman got up and kicked towards Duplica.

Duplica attempted to block with her hammer, though the woman kicked Duplica's hand, which then froze to the hammer.

"Huh?" The woman punched towards Duplica.

Duplica blocked, the hammer was then completely frozen.

"Duplica watch out, it seems like this woman can freeze anything she touches."

"She must be using some kind of ice dust." Duplica replied, quickly changing her aura to Alex's, though her hand was will frozen.

"Hm, so my hand is still frozen."

"Stay behind me, I've got this handled." Angel jumped forward, blocking a kick and grabbing the woman's leg.

"Time for you to die." Angel pushed the shield, blocking both a punch and knocking the woman to the floor.

"Duplica, try thawing out your hand."

"Already did." Duplica remarked as she took out a fire dust crystal.

"Good." Angel looked to see the woman was back up, and had punched towards her yet again.

Angel blocked, pushing forward and twirling the parasol.

The woman's fist was not only blocked, but redirected.

Before she could react Angel closed her parasol, jumping up and kicking her across the face.

An explosion of fire was formed as the woman was knocked back.

"Fire melts ice!" Duplica shouted as she tossed a fire dust crystal at the enemy.

"True, it does." The woman punched at the ground, creating an ice wall in front of herself.

The crystal hit the wall, braking on impact, though the ice wall melted, letting water swarm the floor.

"Angel, quickly the chairs!"

"Right." Both Angel and Duplica jumped onto a chair.

"Now!" Duplica fired one more fire dust crystal, completely melting the ice.

"On it." Angel fired a thunderbolt at the water, though it quickly changed to ice before she could shock the woman with it.

"Seriously, who are you?" Duplica asked.

"Shouldn't you know already you filthy Rot?" Duplica paused.

"Rot?" The woman scoffed.

"Trying to play dumb with me huh?" Duplica shook her head.

"Honestly I have no idea what you…" Duplica's voice trailed off.

Jack, the man who she and Angel killed prior to this experience, Jack Rot Xiav… Rot, that was his middle name.

"Oh my god it all makes sense now." The woman rose an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?" Duplica didn't respond.

Rot was just thrown at her like an insult, and Jack had the middle name of Rot, when Angel went to kill him he allowed her, saying, "kill me, I have the traitors blood," could that mean that she was working for a Rot? No, that is impossible, she worked for Mr. Prime, and he didn't have anything to do with the Rot's, or so she thought, but then again why would Prime want her and Angel to kill Xiav's and Gorm's?

"We're not Rot's, this is honestly a huge misunderstanding." The woman frowned.

"I watched you kill Jack, do you honestly believe that I am going to fall for any of your tricks?"

"Any of our tricks, no, seriously ma'am we're not Rot's."

"Then why did you kill Jack?"

"We don't know, we were just told to by our boss." Angel looked around, there was some kind of movement on the train, but she wasn't sure where.

"Bull shit you're not Rot's no one else even knows we are still alive."

"The Xiav's?" The woman sighed.

"Yes the Xiav's, you two are wicked good actors I hope you know that." It was Duplica's turn to sigh.

"But, we're not acting. We honestly don't know what's going on, our boss just tells us to kill people, and we do it."

"Why do you follow his orders?" Duplica paused.

"We have nothing else to do."

"Do you not have a family to go back to?" Duplica paused.

"We don't know, we can't remember anything past working for our boss?"

"So, you claim you have amnesia?"

"I don't know what that is ma'am, but please, you have to believe us." The woman looked at Duplica's face.

She didn't want to believe the girl, but her innocent look was very convincing.

Maybe she wasn't lying?

Though if she let her guard down surely the girl's ally would attack, not to mention if they where Rot's a sneak attack was surly waiting.

But this girl looked like she couldn't, or more like wouldn't hurt a fly, something seemed off about the situation, and she wanted to find out what it was exactly.

"What's the earliest thing you remember?" Duplica paused.

"We woke up, and our boss was looking at us, it looked like some sort of hospital." Angel recounted.

"Who's your boss?"

"Prime, Platinum Prime." The woman frowned.

"Holy shit, girls you are not in a safe spot."

"What do you mean?"

"Prime is a Faunas who is," The woman was cut off as a barrage of gunfire overwhelmed her.

"Ma'am!" Duplica shouted in surprise.

"You've spoken quite enough." Duplica and Angel watched in horror and Prime jumped into the train from the rooftop and blasted the woman's head clean off.

"Holy Oum!" Duplica felt someone put her in a full nelson.

"Angel!" Duplica looked to see Angel was put in the same, by Silver.

"Prime, sir, what's going on?" Prime sighed as he pointed the gun at Duplica, loading in some yellow bullets.

"I'm sorry Duplica, but you and Angel know too much." The last thing Duplica could remember before blacking out was being shot by Prime, and falling to the ground.


	20. Team CHAOS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Duplica tells the others about the flashbacks, though will she and her friends have the upper hand against Prime, or is he one step ahead?

Chapter 18- Team CHAOS

"Duplica, Duplica?" Duplica heard as she opened her eyes.

"Huh, what?" Duplica asked as she looked around.

The rest of her team was there, and so was Team DFNC.

"Am I,"

"In the infirmary, yes." Jen replied.

"You passed out in the middle of history class, scared the crap out of the teacher, Angel and everyone." Duplica looked up to Angel.

"Is everything okay dear?" Angel asked.

"N, no, nothing's okay as a matter of fact." Her friends made concerned looks at each other, Duplica was normally very cheery, so to see her upset was something else.

"What's wrong dear?" Angel asked.

"I had a flashback of all flashbacks."

"Really, what was it about?" Cassidy asked.

Duplica paused.

"I'm really sorry guys, but me and Angel's been keeping a secret for a while, I've been getting flashbacks for the past couple of months."

"But, why keep it a secret?" Jen asked.

"Well, we kind of murdered a total of six people in these flashbacks."

"Wait what?" Fu asked.

"Yeah, you might want to explain more than that." Devlin agreed.

"Right, well as it turns out our old boss, Platinum Prime, was telling us to kill a bunch of people, who just happened to be part of the Xiav family."

"You mean one of the three old factions that used to live in the Evermore forest?" Nate asked.

"Yes, well anyways as it turns out in the flashbacks we killed six Xiav family members, well, we killed five, Platinum killed one, and all I know right now is that the Rot's are included, somehow." Duplica looked over to Angel.

"Duplica, did you say that the man who wanted us to kill, was Mr. Prime himself?" Duplica frowned.

"As weird as it is to say, yes, it was him who told us to kill everyone."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Well, he shot both of us, in the head I'm going to assume."

"Then, how come we are live?"

"Perhaps you got amnesia when your old boss shot you in the head?" Rachel suggested.

"Maybe? I don't know." Duplica looked over to Angel.

"You're sure it was Prime?"

"Yes I'm sure, it was him." Angel frowned.

"So, what do you think those flashbacks mean?"

"Well, when one of them died, Jack Rot Xiav was his name, he said he had the traitor's blood in him, so maybe that means that sense he was part Rot…" Duplica's voice trailed off.

"What is it Duplica?"

"Um, never mind, I'm not sure how to think of all of this information I got."

"Well, you've got all of chi studies and the rest of the day to try and figure it out, if you are feeling up to go to class that is, we can excuse you if you want." Duplica paused.

"No, I'll go to class with you guys." Duplica got out of the bed.

"Are you sure?" Angel asked.

"Positive."

"Okay, if you insist."

"We'll meet up with you after Grimm Studies class." Devlin noted.

"Okay, see you later." The group walked out of the infirmary.

"Uh oh, that's not a good sign." Bronze stated as he looked to Copper, the two where disguised as normal students.

"It seems like Duplica has learned everything." Bronze nodded.

"We should tell Platinum right away."

"Agreed."

…

"Gold you'd better tell me the team is ready." Prime said as he walked into the room.

"No worries boss, here!" Gold pointed to the five 'humans' standing in front of him.

Prime nodded.

"Right, get them onto an airship on the double."

"Whoa boss, I don't understand, what is going on?"

"We've got to attack now, the plan it has to be launched now."

"What do you mean boss?"

"Omega and Gamma have gone rouge, the plan has to be launched right now."

"Wait, Omega and Gamma have gone rouge, did they get their memories back?"

"According to Bronze and Copper yes, and sense the team is here, why not test them out?"

"Okay, the plan's a go then?"

"Yes, we are attacking Venus."

…

"What did you mean by old boss?" Angel whispered to Duplica as the two sat in class.

"Well I don't know about you but I have no intentions on staying with a man who has told me to kill before." Duplica replied.

"I can't believe he was the one who told us to kill though, he hasn't asked us to do that recently."

"It was probably to keep our memories at bay."

"Well he failed that one." Duplica smiled a little.

"Yeah he did, and when we go on the mission part of our year we'll go to Prime's base and take it down." Angel nodded.

"I'm still shocked though, Prime seems to be even craftier then we know."

"Yeah, it makes me concerned now."

"How so?"

"Just keep your semblance ready, I have a bad feeling." Angel nodded, she blinked, her iris's turned a light green, showing that she switched her element to wind.

"What are you afraid that's going to happen?" Before Duplica could respond there was a sound that stopped her.

"Was that, gunfire?" A student asked.

The sound repeated, mixed in with some shouts.

"What's going on?" Another student asked.

This time a cannon was heard, then a large part of the wall was ripped clean through by a large plasma blast.

"What the fuck was that?" Jen asked.

"Guys run, get your weapons, and please make it quick."

"What about you Duplica?" Duplica frowned as she took out her bow.

"There's nothing to hide behind is there?"

"Well, sense that thing can fire through these walls, probably not." Duplica frowned.

"Then I'll have to try to take this down by myself." The other three looked at each other.

"We'll make it really quick."

"Please do."

"Be right back!" With that the rest of the team and all the students ran out of the room.

"Duplica, you have to get out of here!"

"No, I can handle myself, the others are going to need someone to protect them though." The professor paused.

"Right, sense you have a weapon you'll be fine, though be safe Duplica." With that the professor ran out of the room.

"I'll be just peachy." Duplica said sarcastically as she fired an ice arrow at the android.

"What is that thing?" She asked herself.

"Spider droid!" She looked to see Professor's Athena and David jump at the android.

"Okay, thank god, I'm safe." Duplica turned to see a sword's blade was place at her neck by some kid.

"Guess again." Duplica quickly changed into Angel's aura, blocking with some barrier magic.

Duplica took this time to get a better look at this kid.

He seemed to be around five foot eleven, had dark blue hair, wore what looked like a dark blue kung fu outfit, though he wore what looked like golden boots. His weapons were two swords. It didn't look like anything special, just two swords with blue hilts and golden cross guards.

"Buzz off kid!" Jen shouted as she tackled the kid.

The kid quickly kicked Jen off of him.

"Get your hands off of Duplica." Jen said as she flipped and landed on both her feet.

"Where are the others?"

"Rachel's coming, Angel should be here right,"

"Come here you!"

"Now." The two looked to see Angel dash towards the kid and slash at him. He quickly blocked and slashed back with both his swords.

Angel withdrew her weapons blade and opened the parasol. Both swords connected, though deflected quickly.

The kid frowned, then used his semblance to quickly get behind Angel.

"Whoa, this kid is quick." Rachel remarked as he went all out on Angel.

"Get off of her!" Duplica shouted angrily as she hit the guy full force with a war hammer. The kid was knocked back, though he quickly landed, changing targets.

"Whoa!" Duplica stepped back, though that didn't help her at all, the kid was too quick for her.

She didn't know what to do, this kid was way too quick for her. For every attack she blocked there was easily two more sent her away.

"Back off." Jen said coolly as she tackled the kid.

"Girls, stay behind me, I can handle him."

"Are you sure Jen?" Jen smirked at Duplica's comment.

"Positive." The kid looked at Jen.

"You want to fight me alone huh? Not wise girl, not wise." Jen smirked.

"You're rather cocky aren't you?"

"It's not cocky when you know you are going to win."

"Five bucks says you lose."

"More like your head."

"As the same for yours." The two paused, sizing each other up, then both charged forward.

Jen was going just as good as Duplica, though in the end she had something Duplica didn't remember, a defensive semblance.

"You're just as bad as the last girl, pathetic." Jen smirked.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to compensate." Angel and Rachel looked at each other.

"Compensate? How would you do that?"

"Duplica!"

"Right!" Duplica changed over to Rachel's bo staff.

"Go!" Both Duplica and Rachel fired a grenade at the two.

"Jen!"

"No worries, I'm fine, but where is the kid?" Duplica paused, soon creating a barrier behind her.

"Nice try!" Duplica said as Angel knocked the kid away with her parasol.

"Hold on, I think I have a better solution Jen."

"What is it?"

"I can attack quicker, but you have the better aura, so how about we mix the two, and take the best from both fighters."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, this!" Duplica rushed forward, changing her aura over to Jen's.

"Come here you!" Both Duplica and Jen ran towards the guy.

Before they could attack they were both hit full on by a Spider Droid's plasma blast.

"Jen!"

"Duplica!" Angel and Rachel looked to see the spider droid enter the room.

"Why don't you fight my little friend?"

Angel and Rachel looked at each other.

"Well, I guess it's time for take two!" Angel jumped in front of Rachel, crouching and opening her parasol.

Rachel crouched behind Angel and pointed her bo staff slightly in the air.

"Fire!"

"On it!" Rachel unloaded, managing to easily destroy the Spider Droid.

"Nice one!" Angel closed her parasol, only to open it once more as the guy jumped forward and stabbed towards her.

"This guy's attacks are too quick, how does he attack so quickly?"

"Get off of her!" Angel looked to see both Jen and Duplica rush forward, both had the same aura.

"What are we doing to do?" Rachel asked.

"Use your semblance while me and Jen hold this kid off."

"It will hurt you to."

"Alright, then you sit back, replace me or Jen if needed, meanwhile Angel can attack this guy with her magic when she has an opening." Angel frowned.

"Hold on, you two are attacking to slow, here!" Angel sent both of them a time glyph, when it touched them both of them felt a surge of energy, they were able to attack and block quicker.

She then fired a slow motion spell at the kid, to slow him down.

"The fuck?" Jen asked.

"We're just as quick as he is now!" Duplica was stunned.

"Is this kid on crack or something!?" Angel shouted.

"Well if he isn't I don't want to see what he's like when he is on crack!" Jen replied as she was forced to block another attack the kid sent her way.

Angel was going to sling another spell, though a noise of another chuck of the classroom's wall breaking stopped her.

Angel and Rachel looked to see another kid jump into the room.

This kid was a girl, she was five foot five with medium length hair, she wore a jacket, shirt, shorts, knee socks, sneakers, and fingerless gloves, the strange part is the her clothing, gloves, shoes, and hair where two different colors, purple on the left side, and orange on the right side.

"Who's this?" Rachel asked.

"No clue, did she come to help?" The girl walked up to Angel, then stabbed at her with one of her sais.

"I'd say that she isn't here to help."

"What gave you that idea Rachel?"

"Probably the stabbing."

"That question was rhetorical!" Angel back flipped, opening her parasol.

"Well if she is close combat that I guess it's only best to fight from a range." Angel opened fire, though what happened next surprised her.

The girl put both arms in front of her, to guard herself, then next thing Angel knew her bullets where not only harming the girl, but bouncing off, managing to hit all her team members.

"Whoa!" Jen shouted as the guy kicked her and sent her flying into Rachel.

"These guys are tough." Jen said as she got off of Rachel.

"Angel!" Angel looked to see Duplica flying towards her, and then slam into her.

"Sorry, couldn't say duck in time." The four looked to see their two enemies where standing, waiting for their next move.

"These guys are tough." Angel stated.

"But they can be taken down." Jen replied.

"Sure, but how?"

"We'll need two people on each enemy, so girls, ready to try out our duo teams?" The others nodded.

"Right, I'll call out who attacks the guy first, and who attacks the girl last."

"Alright, let's try it out."

"Okay, Atomic Wall, Magic Mirror!"

"On it!" Jen rushed towards the guy, Rachel close behind her.

"Stay behind me Duplica, I'll stall this bitch."

"Um, okay if you insist." Duplica changed back to her aura.

"Come here you!"

…

"Eat shit!" Devlin shouted as he shot the head off of an AK-130 model.

"Whoever decided to raid the school was fucking stupid, you'd need more then AK-130's to be able to stop a school of huntsmen." Fu said.

"Yeah, lucky us that the enemy is stupid." Nate replied.

"Whoa!" The four looked to see another student be blasted through a few walls, then saw a spider droid pursue the student.

"Well, I guess they had more than we thought." Cassidy stated as another Spider Droid walked into the room.

"Alright team, get ready." Devlin was confused as the Spider Droid stood there for a minute, then turned and walked away.

"What was that about?"

"Not a clue." Fu looked to where the Spider Droid used to be.

"It wasn't here to attack, it was here to drop some guy off." Devlin looked over to where Fu was looking.

"Hm, I guess it's time for round two."

The guy was roughly six foot four with short red hair, he wore a red shirt with an orange vest, he had orange pants, and red combat boots.

"Look at that hammer." Cassidy commented.

"Well it's about to be a tin can!" Nate replied as he charged forward.

He swung down on the weapon, sure enough the guy was knocked backwards.

"Alright, let's get started guys." Cassidy ran forward, though before she could attack she was suddenly blasted back by a large red wave.

"What was that?" Devlin asked as Cassidy got up.

"No clue, though it seems to be powerful enough to launch people away from it."

"Maybe it's his semblance, anyways we don't have time to just talk, we can find out while fighting him anyways." Devlin rushed forward, Nate and Cassidy right behind him.

The kid brought his hammer down towards Devlin, who knocked it to the side with one of his shotguns.

Once the hammer hit the shotguns a big blast of wind dust was fired out of the hammer, sending the three flying backwards.

"Okay that's going to get really annoying." Fu commented as she summoned two of her drones out of her backpack.

"You're telling me." Devlin remarked as he got up.

"Alright, let's stop playing around and hit this guy with the big stuff, Fire Bird!"

"On it!" Cassidy sighed, allowing her aura to fully channel through her body.

"Ready?" Nate asked, his semblance was fully charged and ready to go.

"Ready!" Nate nodded, soon picking up and throwing Cassidy at the kid.

The kid smirked, then let out another red wave out of his hand.

"Whoa!" Cassidy punched the wave, though sadly it was too powerful for her.

"What the fuck?" Devlin asked as he watched Cassidy fly through a wall.

"That wave is powerful, can he cast those at will, or does he need to charge those up?"

"I don't know, try hitting him again." Nate nodded, then ran forward, blocking a strike from the enemy and struck him again.

Devlin's eyes widened as he watched the kid 'stumble backwards.'

"I think I understand." Devlin noted as he watched Nate fly backwards.

"Understand what?"

"He's not really being knocked back, though where is all that knockback going?"

"I think he's making those waves of energy with said knockback." Fu commented.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

"Then how are we going to hit this guy if he can knock us back?"

"Come back here you!" Cassidy shouted as she sprinted into the room.

"Alright, new plan, attack him as quickly as you can, if he can't attack then he can't use his semblance." Nate nodded, soon turning, though he was then body slammed by Cassidy.

"That's a no go, quick and powerful doesn't seem to faze him at all." Cassidy commented as the two got up.

"Well keep stalling him then, my drones can make gradual work out of him." Fu replied.

"Can do, we'll attack him one by one." Devlin charged forward, though a quick wind blast stopped him.

"Or maybe not, good Oum this is not going well."

"Wait, I don't think that wind blast was spawned from his hammer."

"Why not Cassidy?"

"If it was I would have been blasted away by now." Cassidy explained as she dodged another attack from the man.

"Then where did it come from?" Fu looked around.

"Up there, there's a," Fu was hit with a wind spell before she could finish her sentence.

"Wait, what?" Devlin looked up to see a girl land next to the guy.

"Great, just what we needed, another enemy." Devlin said sarcastically.

"This guy was hard enough, see if Duplica and her team are free, or at least in less of a bad situation then we are."

"Alright Cassidy, though you and the others are going to have to try to keep them off me."

"Can do." Devlin grabbed his scroll and called Duplica.

"Hello, Duplica here, sorry I can't talk right now Devlin I'm currently trying not to get decapitated, please leave me a message after the bee, shit, Jen! … bee,"

"Duplica me and my team need your team's help right now, we're in a bad situation."

"Well if you listened to that voice mail you'd know we're not in any greater condition, now please, leave me a message after the beep, bee,"

"Nate's on fire!"

"It burns!" Nate shouted as he ran past Devlin.

"… Beep?"

"What are you, a robot?"

"Devlin, now's not the time for jokes, anyways I'm sorry but we can't, oh god, Magic Aegis, Copy Cat, we can't really help you right now, now if you excuse me I'm going to hang up before I get," Duplica was cut off, the scroll call ended.

"Duplica? Duplica!? Shit, guys we need to make our way over to Duplica's team, and fast."

"How do you suggest we do that, we are kind of getting our asses handed to us here." Fu replied.

"Well, if we are getting our asses handed to us here, then maybe we should get out of here and make it a hopefully two versus eight." The others nodded.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" The team turned and ran out of the room.

The two enemies gave chase, the girl was able to snipe one of the drones with a lightning bolt.

"Keep running!" Fu shouted as another one flew out of her bag.

"There's the class room."

"Duplica!" The four looked to see Duplica fly out of the room and slam into a wall.

"Whoa!" Rachel quickly joined her, both fell to the ground.

The four looked to see a guy walk out of the classroom, duel swords at the ready.

"Cassidy."

"On it!" Nate launched her once again.

She slammed into the guy, though the rest of her surprise attack was cut short by a couple quick slashes.

"Duplica!" Devlin and Angel ran up at the same time. Duplica slowly got up.

"Ouch."

"I wish I had time to heal you, but I don't." Angel helped Duplica up.

"It's fine, Devlin tell Cassidy to fight the girl with the sais, sais can't block and control fists like they do swords."

"Alright, but we kind of have problems of our own right now." Duplica looked to see the hammer wielder and pink haired girl run up.

"Hey, she was the girl I saw that one night." Angel recalled.

"Really, you saw this girl?"

"I'm positive, I've seen her before." Duplica nodded.

"So, spying on us before attacking, who's the brains of this operation?

"Who do you think?" Angel looked to Duplica.

"No way."

"You know, I have to admit, you two are quite the fighters to resist my memory wiper a second time, though now I'm afraid you know too much." Prime said as he walked up.

"And sense you have resisted the memory wiper twice, I suppose we are just going to have to kill you." Gold replied as he walked up.

"You." Angel said.

Gold smirked.

"Well as much as I would love to play a game of catch up we've got to go, got more than a school to kill you know, Agent's C, H, A, and S, why don't you take care of them, Agent O will be down soon to help." With that Gold and Platinum walked off.

"I told you we couldn't trust them anymore." Duplica replied as the four enemies readied their weapons.

"Right, two teams versus one, this on paper should be easy."

Before the conversation could continue C readied his blades, then sprinted right into Duplica.

"Hey, get your hands off of my girlfriend!" Angel shouted as she used some wind magic to charge at C.

"Right, we'll make it up as we so I guess!" Jen looked to the three enemies.

"Fu."

"Yeah?"

"You get my back, I'm going for the hammer guy." Fu's eyes widened.

"Wait, Jen!" Jen rushed forward, only to be blasted away by another red wave.

"What was that?" Jen asked as she landed on both her feet.

"If you hit this guy with enough force he will send it back at you in a red wave of aura energy." Jen nodded.

"Alright, stay behind me, we've got to keep this guy away from the others, a semblance like his could mess the whole group up." Fu paused, she didn't like taking orders from anyone, though she decided to trust Jen this one time.

"I'm right behind you." Jen nodded, then rushed forward.

"You said strong attacks, what about multiple lighter attacks?"

"I don't know if that does anything." Jen smirked.

"Well, we're about to find out!"

"Damn, stop blocking!" Cassidy said in annoyance as H blocked another punch with her own fist, luckily Cassidy was able to knock the sais out of H's hands.

"Hold on, firing!" Devlin pointed his shotguns.

"Devlin no!" Devlin heard Rachel to late, and fired with both his shotguns.

H rebounded all the pellets, hitting Cassidy full blast, it hit Devlin as well, and Fu.

"Shit." Devlin looked to see Cassidy be knocked back by H, then he was also knocked back.

"What was that?"

"Her semblance is to reflect bullets, Devlin try to just use the axe part of," Rachel was cut off by a fireball.

"Puny girl, fire is not match for my ice!" Nate shouted as he changed his club over to dustblower form, it's like a flamethrower, but with more elements.

He let lose a large spray of ice shards.

"How about we help her chill out?" Rachel commented as she fired a few grenades through the ice dust.

The large explosions crystallized as they formed, though S was easily able to burn her way out and fired a few more ice balls at Nate.

"Oh not this again!" Angel noticed, then fired a large spray of water at Nate and S.

"Angel, help!" Angel looked to see C was charging Duplica, who had barrier magic protecting her.

"Right, on it!" Angel aimed, though before she could fire a slow motion spell Jen slammed into her.

"Jen."

"Sorry, that A guy's real tough." Jen looked to see Fu was knocked back into Duplica, Nate was slammed into Devlin, and Rachel was slammed into Cassidy.

"We're not getting anywhere, come on, let's try to lose them." Duplica got up.

"Split up, maybe we can lose them in the large crowds?"

"How do you expect that we do that?"

"Simple, run, okay, me and Angel will run together, we'll meet up somewhere I'm sure, now we gotta go before C gets us, Oum's speed!" With that Duplica and Angel sped off, the blur that was C was right on their tail.

"Right, let's move it!" Jen punched S across the face, then grabbed Rachel's hand and ran off.

"I guess we've gotta run now." Devlin fired at A.

"Come on Fu, shake a leg!"

"The phrase is 'break a leg' idiot."

"Yeah though I don't think telling you to do that would help us at all Fu."

Cassidy looked over to Nate.

"Try to keep up!" With that she and Nate started to run away from H.

…

"Speed it up Angel."

"I'm going as fast as I can, how far behind is he?"

"Not far at all that's the problem."

"How are we going to lose a guy who can run as fast as we can?"

"Simple, fire at him." Duplica took out her light machinegun and unloaded on C, though Agent C was able to cut and block all the bullets.

"Man this guy's quick."

"Hold on, here!" Angel fired, each bullet of hers was mixed with slow motion magic, though this time C was able to dodge them all.

"Shit this guy's really quick!"

"Yeah that was kind of my problem."

"Come on, we can still lose him."

"Can we really?"

"… I don't know at this point."

"Exactly, come on, let's find the others and regroup with them."

"Okay, you lead the way."

…

"Wow this S girl has a lot of dust!" Jen shouted in surprise as she fired a few more bullets at S.

"I don't know if this is dust Jen, do you see anything glowing on her clothing, there's no dust bottles on her either."

"Well what else could it be?"

"I don't know, magic? Angel has it."

"Exactly, Angel has it, how could she have magic if Angel does?"

"It's just a theory, anyways we've got to try to lose her."

"How do we do that?"

"Like this." Rachel fired a grenade at the ceiling.

"I hope the headmaster doesn't get to mad with us for this." Jen replied as part of the ceiling collapsed.

"If anything knowing Thordin he'll congratulate our resourcefulness." The two looked to see S break the ceiling fragments easily before continuing her pursuit.

"It looks like our A has just became an F." Rachel sighed.

"Everyone's a critic." The two continued to run.

"I don't think we can lose her, it's best to just meet up with the others."

"Speaking of the others, hey look it's Duplica and Angel."

…

"Come on Devlin, keep up." Fu shouted as she continued to run.

"I'm going as fast as I can, thankfully this guy seems to be slower, just keep gunning him, maybe we can drain his aura before we meet up with the others?"

"If his semblance was powerful enough to stop both Nate's and Cassidy's I doubt we'll be able to drain it."

"Right, well time to lower it as much as possible then!"

…

"Do you think we can stop this girl before getting to the others?" Nate asked Cassidy, H was gaining up on him.

"I don't know, we can try." Cassidy turned, letting Nate run past her and kicked H across the face.

H jumped back, reading her sai.

"I don't think sais will be able to stop a club." Nate said convindently.

"Well they can certainly stop fists, I could use a hand here." Nate nodded, then swung forward.

H noticed, and jumped out of the way.

"She's too quick for me." Nate commented as he swung once more, yet again H dodged.

"Keep her distracted, I can handle the rest." Cassidy punched forward, though her punch was parried with a kick.

"Sheesh, how do you counter so quickly?" H didn't respond.

"Hey, guys!" Cassidy looked to see Devlin and Fu was running towards them, A close behind them.

"Come on, we've got to run!" Devlin shouted as he jumped out of the way of a large fire blast summoned from A's hammer.

"Right!" The four continued to run down the halls.

"What are we going to do now?" Nate asked.

"I don't know, find a professor?" Devlin replied.

"That's not a bad idea, they have to be more skilled then these guys, right?" Cassidy asked.

"That's what I was thinking yes."

"Then I guess we should get going soon, break a leg guys!"

"Come on Fu now that's just mean spirited."

"I don't mean literally Devlin you fucktard!" The four continued to run, though what confused them was when their pursuers stopped chasing them.

"Wait, what are they doing?" The team stopped to look.

A and H ran out to a hallway with a broken ceiling, then A used his wind dust to blast the two through one of the holes.

"What are they doing?" Fu asked.

"It looks like they are headed for where the school keeps their airships." Nate replied.

"Are they planning on destroying the airships so the school can't fly the injured away?" The team paused.

"We've got to stop them, Nate, wind dust on the double."

"Got it."

…

"Hey, where are they going?" Jen asked as S blasted her and C away from Team HRMY.

"No clue, though it looks like they are headed towards the airships." Angel replied.

"They might be planning on destroying those." Duplica commented.

"If they do, then how is the school going to get the wounded to safety?" Duplica's eyes widened at Jen's question.

"Good point, they won't be able to, come on we've got to try and stop them before it's too late." Duplica grabbed onto Jen, Angel grabbed onto Rachel, and the two launched the group over to the airport.

"So, how are we going to land?" Angel asked.

"I don't know, anything goes?" Angel nodded.

"If that's the case, she's all yours Jen." Angel threw Rachel towards Duplica.

"Whoa, um, okay." Duplica tossed Jen towards Rachel. Both wrapped an arm around each other.

"You ready Jen?" Rachel asked.

"Whenever you are." Rachel nodded, then put her bo staff in between the two.

"Are you ready for the drop?" Jen put one fist in front of them.

"Wait for it." Angel flew over with some wind dust, and turned Rachel and Jen over towards the ground.

Angel then created an impact behind the two, it started to spin, turning purple instead of white.

"Wait for it, wait for it." Angel looked to see Devlin and the others were chasing A and H.

"Now!" Angel released the impact right before Rachel fired, using her semblance to fire a powerful shot behind her, both the impact and grenade sent her and Jen rocketing towards the ground.

"Now that you have your speed, ready for the High Impact Wide Burst Drop?"

"The HIWBD? Yeah." Rachel nodded.

"Hope your semblance is up."

"You bet your ass it is." Jen looked to see C speed over to the other team.

"Better make it quick Rachel." Rachel had her bo staff at the ready, it was powered up with some fire magic Angel had put on the weapon.

"Well, batter up!" Rachel slammed her bo staff on Jen's combat boots and instead of a bullet Jen flew down like a comet, conveniently slamming into C and kicking him across the airfield and slamming into a wall.

The second Jen hit C a large fire wave was created from her landing.

"Nice one, okay team, attack!" Rachel and Angel flew down and pounced on A, though he was able to quickly knock them out of the way before Rachel could continue the team attack.

"Gosh, those guys are tough." Duplica took out her war hammer.

"But let's see if Ms. Sai lady can block this!" Duplica fell down making sure to put all her weight, or however much she could muster, into slamming the hammer down, the only problem was that H stepped out of the way in time.

"I wouldn't try that Duplica, that girl's kind of too quick for heavy hitters, believe me I know." Nate commented as H kicked Duplica into him.

"So now you tell me, not only can she block swords and bullets, but she's too quick to be hit by a hammer, hm, I think I have the counter." Though before Duplica could get back up she and Nate where blasted away by a wind blast summoned by A, then his red wave attack.

"I'm getting real sick of that attack." Duplica said as she got up.

"You're telling me, how about you and me trade?" Duplica looked to see S had knocked Devlin towards them.

"Can do I guess." Duplica changed auras, quickly bringing out Angel's semblance, though something stopped her attack.

"Drop Agent O." Duplica looked to see C had knocked Jen back once again, though something strange happened.

She saw something, or someone, falling from the sky.

"Whoa!" Duplica looked over to see Angel.

"Duplica try to focus more, S was about to hit you with a powerful fireball." Duplica shrugged.

"I can count on you can't I? Anyways, look at that." Duplica pointed up to the object that was falling, as it turned out the object looked a lot like a human.

"What is that?" The two continued to watch until the man slammed right threw an airship, soon walking out of the explosion without a scratch of damage on him, his chain gun was at the ready.

The guy was roughly six foot one, he had a brown buzz cut and a camouflage outfit and an iron chest plate, he also wore black boots.

"Does that man have a chain gun?" Devlin asked.

"No matter, it's still five versus eight right?"

"Well, five versus seven really."

"What do you mean seven?" Angel asked.

"You should probably look behind you." Angel was curious, then turned around.

Duplica was hiding behind her.

"Angel, the enemy is behind you." Angel sighed.

"Come on babe, at least try to fight." Duplica sighed.

"Fine." The man fired, pointing the chain gun at Duplica.

"Whoa!" Duplica quickly changed to Angel's aura, the parasol's shield held, though Duplica herself was stumbling backwards, barely keeping the bullets away from her and Angel.

"Let me!" Angel jumped forward, she was holding the attacks better, though she was still being pushed back.

"Good Oum this guy's gun is powerful!"

"Here, let me!" Rachel shouted as she was pushed away from A.

She fired a grenade at O.

It exploded, though a barrier in front of him stopped the grenade from actually doing any sort of damage.

"Oh what the fuck?" Angel asked.

"I have no clue, are the others even doing anything anymore?" Duplica replied, she had a barrier up just in case S would attack, though it didn't seem like S didn't want to.

"Maybe she's waiting for something?" Angel asked.

"What's she waiting for?" Duplica was soon answered by having Devlin and Nate slam into her, A had repelled both of them into her.

"This guy is really beginning to piss me off." Devlin said.

"Shit!" Duplica looked to see Angel's parasol be shaken violently to the left thanks to some wind magic, leaving her open to be barraged by the chain gun fire.

"No!" Duplica shouted, stomping hard on the ground.

The ground started to shake, messing up O's accuracy.

"Thanks!" Angel replied before using her wind magic to fly towards S.

"Good luck Devlin and Nate!" Duplica said before she quickly followed Angel.

"Well shit, we've got a barrier user, and a chain gun user." Devlin looked over to O.

"Wait, what is he doing?"

"Devlin, look in front of you." Devlin looked then blocked an attack from A.

"We can worry about that man later, let's crush this one first."

"Right."

"Jen!" Fu shouted, C had just knocked her back yet again.

"Shit, how does this man attack so quickly?" Jen asked, stumbling a bit as she got up.

"I don't have a clue, wait, where is he going?" Fu's eyes followed C, though Jen's eyes followed O.

"Get him drones!"

"Wait, Fu watch out!" Fu turned.

"What?" Fu noticed O was aiming right at her.

"Fu!" Jen jumped right as the chain gun fired.

Fu was surprised at first, Jen saved her life yet again it seems, though at this rate with how much damage she took she was basically killing herself.

"Drones, change targets!" O smirked before activating his shield once again.

"Shit, Jen!" Duplica looked over to the action.

"Angel, hold off S, I'm going to help." Angel nodded her head.

"Better do it quick, I don't know if Cassidy can hold off C on her own."

"I'll be back as quickly as possible." Duplica ran off, changing over to her own semblance, and using the whip sword to trip O.

"Teams, on me!" Duplica used an impact to fly over to the other side of the battle field.

"Angel, protect us!"

"On it." Duplica landed on the ground, Angel rose an earth wall in front of them.

"Alright, so what's the plan?" Rachel asked.

"Plan? We're supposed to have a plan?" Duplica asked.

"Well, it would be preferred then just farting around and being lost in confusion until we die." Jen replied, she was being held up by Fu.

"Are you okay Jen?" Duplica asked.

"What do you think?" Duplica frowned, if Jen's seemingly limitless chi had ran out…

"Okay, does anyone have any plans, any at all?" The group stayed silent.

"I might have an idea." Duplica replied to Devlin's question.

"Crap, they're getting through the wall!"

"Make another?" Angel nodded.

"On it!"

"I'll help, I can enforce the walls with ice." Duplica nodded.

"Alright Nate, though you two keep listening."

"Can do."

"What's the idea Duplica?" Devlin asked.

"Well, this is just an idea, based on a strange theory I had while I was fighting C with Jen."

"Speed it up Princess, the others can't hold those five off forever." Jen commented.

"Alright, so while I was fighting C I kind of noticed something about him, there was some strange beeping noise I heard coming from him, it was very faint, though still noticeable, the weird thing was that I could hear the same noise coming from our enemies."

"What do you think this means?" Cassidy asked she was sitting down, sense the battle had burned out her chi.

"Well, bear with me here, I think that they might be robots."

"What, human looking androids? That's insane."

"Do you have any other ideas?" Fu paused.

"Alright, let's say that these are human looking androids, how are we going to stop them from caving our skulls in?" Duplica smiled.

"Simple, we hit them with an Electro Magnetic Pulse."

"Makes sense, it would fry any electronics in the area, so we can find out if they are Android's or not, but how are we going to get an EMP to begin with?"

"Well, there's two components to this, the electromagnetic part, and the pulse part, the electromagnetic part is simple, Angel has electric magic, I have the same sense I copied her aura, and I'm assuming Nate has electric dust."

"You're not wrong." Nate replied.

"Sweet, well we have the EM so far, all we need is the P."

"You could drink a lot of water." Duplica paused at Jen's comment.

"Well, I am parched, anyways we need a catalyst, sense we can use all three of our electricity's to super charge someone's semblance, but whose semblance are we going to boost?" There was a pause.

"Well, we can use an EMP bomb if we power up one of my grenades, the radius is that of a mini nuke, I think that is enough to engulf them."

"Yes, but us as well, is there a way that we can hit them without taking serious damage ourselves?"

"We can use my semblance, it's an aura dragon, it can fire out an EMP wave if we want it to." Devlin offered.

"That sounds safer." Cassidy replied.

"Though a grenade sounds like more fun." Jen added.

"Can we just pick one before Nate runs out of dust and I run out of chi?" Duplica paused.

"Alright, all in favor of EMP dragon, raise your right hand, all in favor of the EMP Nuke, raise your left hand." Everyone other then Nate and Jen rose their right hand.

"Alright, then Devlin, ready for your super charge?" Devlin smirked.

"Hit me." Duplica, Angel and Nate all did just that.

"Oh yeah, now THIS is power!" Devlin inhaled deeply, then let out a loud booming roar as a large yellow dragon flew out of his body into the sky.

It roared as a large EMP blast was emitted.

The final wall broke, though nothing came after that.

"I think Duplica was right, come on, whoever's fighting fit, let's break us some bots!" Nate, and Rachel ran out from behind the wall and went to town destroying the five.

"There we go, that should just about do it." Rachel said as she and Nate walked back to the other side of the wall.

"Hey, what happened to Duplica and Angel?" Jen asked.

"Well, sense unlike Nate they used their semblances, maybe they got tired out and put literally all their power into making sure the EMP was as useful as possible."

"Probably, come on we should bring them to the infirmary." The group looked in surprise as several air ships fell out of the sky and exploded the grounded ones.

"Damn it, never mind, it looks like we won't make it if we stay here, come on, we need to go!" Nate grabbed Devlin, Fu was helping Jen, Rachel was carrying both Duplica and Angel, and Cassidy grabbed Nate's remaining arm.

"Come on, we need to get out of here." Nate said.

"Where will we go?"

"Vulcan."

"What?" Nate looked to see Devlin was pointing somewhere.

"Go there, Vulcan." Nate paused.

"Alright, though you're going to have to give me directions as we go."

…

"And, there we go." Ryu Xiav Gorm replied as he took his katana out of an Ursa Major's head.

Ryu was around six foot five with short dark blue hair. He wore a dark blue fighters headband, and a dark blue outfit similar to what a ninja would wear. The only thing that was off was that he wore a belt with had a couple pouches on them, and a sheath to put his katana in.

"Not bad self, yet another to add to the pile." Ryu commented as he cut the Ursa's head off and chucked it onto a pile of Grimm heads.

Ryu sighed, he decided to call it quits for the day, the sun was setting, and even though he was down five heads compared to the previous day's hunt, though it was still a decent head count.

Even with how many he killed there is still easily way too many Grimm in the forest, though the process was going to be gradual.

Ryu sighed as he sat down, resting his body on a tree.

He began to think a quick prayer in his mind, though something stopped him mid prayer.

…

"How can you trust Devlin right now? This is a thick ass forest, so there is little to no way he knows what direction to go, not only that, I don't think he even knows his ass form his elbow right now." Fu said.

"Well maybe if you turned on your computer gauntlets and looked up Vulcan on your GPS we wouldn't be having this problem." Nate replied.

"I can't use my gauntlets sense the EMP fried all my electronics you blowhard!"

"Then we'll continue to follow Devlin's directions, are we still going the right way?"

"Uh." Devlin pointed.

"Alright, let's get moving."

"We're moving as fast as we can." Jen mumbled.

"Considering our situation I think we should try and speed up a little." Rachel replied.

"Our situation?"

"Yeah, think about it, Fu's weapons are fried, and she's kind of holding you up, if that says anything you and Fu is kind of out of the count right now, so is Duplica and Angel sense they are kind of out cold right now, Devlin's knowledge of his ass and his elbow is in question, and he's pretty much being dragged at this point, so he's out of it, and Cassidy's aura seemed to have mostly burned out. If we fight any class Grim higher than a Beowolf, we're kind of fucked."

"I'm not out for the count, I can still fire." Jen said as she changed one of her gloves into pistol mode.

"Yeah, but in your wiped out state how well is you're aim?" Jen paused.

"I can still fire."

"Sure, but just don't run in front of any attacks will you?" Jen nodded.

"Can do." Just then the group heard a weird pincer sound.

"Shit, Deathstalker." Rachel and Nate dropped their friends and readied their weapons.

"No, wait, oh shit." Rachel looked to see an Antles making its way towards them.

"Is it too late to just run?" Jen asked.

"Well, I'd say so." Rachel replied as two more showed up.

"Fuck, and to think we end dead this way."

"We're not doing to die, come on we can still fight them." Nate replied as he readied his club.

The first Antles went to strike, though something stopped it.

A big icicle formed under it, impaling it clean through.

"Wait, I thought Angel was out cold." Cassidy said.

Rachel turned to look.

"She is."

"Well then who used the magic?"

The second Antles went to attack, though it was quickly consumed by a huge fireball.

"Is someone helping us?" Rachel asked.

"I think so, maybe the rest of Venus was able to fight off the attackers?"

"Maybe, who knows?" The third Antles went to attack, though it was stabbed clean through its bone armor right into its brain by some ninja looking person.

"Say, thanks for that." Rachel said to the man as he back flipped right next to her.

"No problem, but whatever you are doing here, I suggest you get it done quickly."

"Wish we could, but we have to go through the forest in order to get our friends to safety." The man rose an eyebrow, then looked at the group of wiped out, or out cold people.

His eyes stopped when he saw Angel, and Duplica, something about them was familiar to him.

"I can help you with that." Rachel nodded.

"Thanks, we would like all the help we can get, what's your name?"

"Ryu, I'll ask for yours later, now, where are you headed?"

"Vulcan." Devlin repeated.

Ryu nodded.

"Alright, follow me then." The group followed Ryu, any Grimm that showed up he easily killed with a quick slash from his katana.

…

"Well, here's the place, whatever this place is." Ryu stated as he brought the others to a factory.

"The Keep." Devlin replied.

"Ah, the Keep it is, I like it, has a nice ring to it." Ryu looked to the others.

"Thanks for protecting us while we traveled over to here Ryu." Rachel said.

"It was no problem, if you want I'll stay to help while you guys recover." Rachel smiled.

"That would be well appreciated Ryu." Devlin looked at the keep, Nate dragged him in.

"Where to now?"

"To the left, up the stairs, living quarters." Nate nodded, soon dragging his leader up the flight of stairs.

A long stream of the word ow was heard as the group ascended the staircase.

"Here we are, the top floor." Devlin looked to the others.

"Those of you who need sleep, get it." With that he got up and dragged himself to the nearest bedroom.

"Welp, time to hibernate." Jen replied as she and the others went off to get some much needed rest.


	21. Vulcan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group attempts to recover from their past fight, though a few new problems arise, one of these problems hit Rachel and Jen a little harder then the others...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We get to learn Team HRMY's weapon names this chapter!

"Alright, time for a damage report." Devlin said as the group, minus Duplica and Angel, meet up around a table in the living room.

"Well, apart from some sores and bruises I got I'm fine." Jen replied.

"How's your weapon's doing?" Cassidy asked.

"Still offline, fried actually, I'm going to have to rebuild them." Fu commented.

"Well, I was asking the others, sense we know your weapon is broken, I was wondering if everyone else's weapons where broken." The group looked to each other.

"Well mine's fried." Nate said.

"Dinding Heran is stuck in glove form and can't fire, though until we make new ones I'll just use them as claws like I normally do."

"My Panzer can't fire grenades anymore, though my Leopard and Panther still work, I'm not sure how though I'm happy they aren't stuck to my wrists."

"My Victor doesn't blow out any dust anymore, and it's stuck in that position so I can't use it as a mace anymore."

Devlin paused, then took out his shotguns.

He pressed the trigger, calm look on his face turned into full panic.

"Naga and Wyvern aren't working!? Fuck no we're remaking our weapons ASA fucking P."

"Yeah, I think we are going to have to rebuild Custode for Angel, and Dunkle Geheimnis for Duplica." Jen replied.

"Right, let me call a friend in then, his names Jack, he'll be able to help us rebuild our weapons." Devlin commented.

"Alright, me and Nate will go into the town, I doubt any of us want to stay in the same clothing for until we get back to Venus, if that's even a safe place anymore."

"Alright Cassidy, though try to stay on a low profile, I don't think those guys followed us here, but just be on the lookout just in case if they did."

"I'll dig around the factory so I can try to get my gauntlets online as quick as possible, that way we can find out Duplica and Angel's conditions." With that Fu walked off.

"Hey uh Jen, can I talk to you for a couple minutes or something?" Jen nodded to Rachel, and the two walked over to Angel and Duplica's bedroom.

"I'll go help Fu look for things that we could use to rebuild your weapons, once you are done contacting your friend I think we could probably use some help." With that Ryu turned around and walked off.

…

"So, what did you need to talk to me about?" Jen asked as she followed Rachel.

"I think you know." Rachel replied as they walked into Duplica and Angel's bedroom.

Jen frowned.

"I hope you're not about to express worry about what I'm worried about." Rachel sighed.

"I'm pretty sure I'm about to." Jen shook her head.

"They're just asleep, that's all."

"Then why have they not woke up yet? I mean, let's be honest here, the rest of us have, so why haven't they?"

"They used their entire chi on order to give Devlin's EMP its max power, I'm telling you their fine, they just need some more sleep." Rachel's frown didn't go away, she didn't believe that, though she didn't want to voice that to Jen.

"Anyways, I think I'm going to help Fu look for some parts, I think you should join me." Jen walked off.

Personally she had a feeling she was wrong about her theory, Duplica's been knocked out before, that's nothing new sadly, though she woke up in relatively quick times afterwards.

She even fully drained her chi during the Evermore Forest fight against the Antles hive, and she woke up pretty early afterwards, so at the very least why was she not awake right now?

Jen was worried, though she wanted to do something else so she could get her mind off of the problem at hand, so she walked down to the first floor and over to Ryu.

"Hey." Ryu looked over.

"Top of the morning to you, can I help you with something?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Ryu paused.

"Well, as embarrassing as it sounds, I need help lifting something."

"I think I'd be a better help in that department." Rachel replied as she walked up.

"What do you need lifted?"

"This big ass piece of scrap metal." Rachel nodded, then easily lifted.

"Whoa, how do you have so much strength?" Ryu asked.

"My semblance, so, where do you want me to put this?"

"Over here." Fu gestured over to where she was.

"Alright." Jen looked over to where Devlin was.

"Hey, whatcha doing?" Jen asked as she walked up.

"I'm drawing out the blue prints for my team's weapons, I think it would be best for you or Rachel to draw your teams weapons so we can get to building once my friend makes his way over here." Jen looked over to see Rachel was carrying practically half the factory over to Fu.

"I'll draw the blue prints, where's a pencil and paper?"

…

"Gold, Report." Prime commanded as Gold walked into his room.

"The invasion was unfruitful." Platinum frowned.

"What went wrong, I thought you said that Team CHAOS were powerful enough to lead our forces to victory."

"Well, they where, the only problem was that someone's favorite girls where clever enough to create an EMP, it fried their cores, and shut all of them off. The airships and the rest of the robots were offline as well so we had no other choice then to retreat." Platinum sighed.

"Very well, repair the team, we can get Silver to rebuild the Android's." Gold nodded.

"Sir yes sir!"

…

"Thordin, what's the status of the Academy?" Ironwood asked over his scroll.

"Well, we could be worse, we've lost a depressing chuck of our students."

"Why didn't you contact me, or raise your alarms?"

"We couldn't contact you because the attackers were jamming our communications, not only that they hacked into the alarms so we couldn't use them." Ironwood frowned, he had a feeling he knew who the attackers where.

"Well, we are going to need to be on the lookout, because not only is there an enemy on the loose, we don't know where they are." Thordin sighed.

"If only we had some more advanced technology, maybe we could prevent this from happening again?"

"I'll get my engineers on that though until then we are going to have to tread lightly, the enemy could be anywhere and until we can gain the upper hand we need to keep our eyes peeled."

"Of course, I'll notify the others."

…

"Alright, that's good to know, yeah, I'll see you soon, okay, bye." Devlin closed his scroll.

"Is your friend getting here soon?" Jen asked as she was illustrating Custode.

"Yeah, she'll be here soon." Jen rose an eyebrow.

"I thought Jack was a guy's name." Devlin paused.

"Yeah, forgot to mention my friend Jessica's coming here as well, in order for us to have some defenders just in case someone attacks." Jen nodded.

"Alright." Devlin finished drawing the blue prints for Naga and Wyvern.

"Hm, you making new versions of your weapon?" Devlin nodded.

"That way if Duplica has to use my weapons she wouldn't feel too guilty about it." Jen cracked a small smile.

"Knowing Duplica I think she would be scared about you blowing up on her again."

"I hope she knows that if she copied Fu's weapons and Semblance that Fu will probably be just as mad if not madder then I was."

"We should probably let her know that when she wakes up."

"She's not awake yet?"

"No, she's been out cold for a while now, so has Angel." Fu looked over to see the worried look on Jen's face.

"Something wrong?" Ryu asked her.

"I don't know, Jen's worried about something." Ryu rose an eyebrow.

"She your girlfriend or something?" Fu frowned, keeping her blush internal.

"No, it's just that her being worried is going to slow down the rebuilding process of our weapons, and we can't have that be slowed down at all." Ryu looked over to Rachel.

He knew he liked something about her, though it saddened him to notice that Rachel was looking worried as well.

"I see what you mean. Having people who are distracted from our mission is only going to slow the process down, though they are distracted for a reason." Fu sighed.

She knew why, it wasn't like it was obvious or anything.

Duplica, and Angel, their health was kind of up in the air at this point, and though Fu was confident enough to think that they are both alive, she had no clue.

She understood Jen was concerned, she would be concerned if Jen wasn't concerned.

Jen put down her pencil.

"There, that should be about it for my teams weapons." Rachel rose an eyebrow, soon walking over to Jen.

"Can I see if you drew my weapon right?" Jen nodded.

Rachel looked at the note.

"Yeah, you got it right to the bolts, it's perfect." Jen laughed.

"I've seen that weapon in action for the past fourish years, I know how it works by now." Jen yawned.

"Well, anyways I'm kind of tired, I'm going to take a nap." With that Jen turned and walked off.

"If we aren't moving anything around I think I'm going to take a walk."

"Without weapons? That's too dangerous, I'm tagging along." Ryu replied.

"Without weapons? Who said anything about me not having weapons?" Rachel flicked both Leopard and Panther off her wrists, both changing into dust chuck mode before she caught them.

"I'll be fine Ryu, don't worry about me." Ryu shook his head.

"I think if anyone is leaving there should be a team of at least two."

"Yeah, I agree with that one." Devlin replied.

Rachel sighed, she wanted to walk alone, though the point they brought up was a good one.

"Alright, let's go Ryu." The two walked out of the Keep.

"Do you think the forest is bad enough to need two people to walk in?" Ryu rose an eyebrow.

"Truthfully I think it would need more, though I understand you want some alone time to think about recent events." Rachel rose an eyebrow.

"I hope I don't sound bitchy, but why would you follow me then?"

"Well, alone time or not I doubt allowing you or any of the others to take a stroll in the forest alone is a good idea, you know what lucks in that forest correct?" Rachel frowned.

"Antles." Ryu nodded.

"Exactly, with that in mind I think it's right to say that if you are going to walk in the forest, I will accompany you." Ryu paused.

"Though if you want to talk about it by the lake I mean it's a lot safer, not only that but it's better to talk about it to other people." Rachel paused, she didn't want to talk about it, Ryu probably had other things to do, and she really didn't want to talk about it.

"Um, no thanks, never mind." Rachel yawned.

"I'm kind of tired now that I think about it, I'm going to take a nap." Ryu paused, then nodded.

"Alright, we'll probably still be working on the weapons when you come down." Rachel nodded.

"Okay, well, see you later." Ryu looked to the lake as Rachel walked off.

"Well, if we have some down time I guess it wouldn't hurt to meditate, I need to find out more about those two girls anyways."

…

Jen sighed as she walked out of the bathroom, she was upset, not even a nice long warm shower got her to feel any better, and that usually makes her feel nice and relaxed.

Jen walked into her room, there was a note on the bed, alongside a pile of clothing.

She read the note.

"Hey Jen, Nate and I went clothing shopping for you, and guess what? They had quite a lot of the same clothing we all wear, so you don't really have to wear anything new, well, apart from the underwear, yeah we kind of had to guess at your teams bra size, so if we were off, please tell us ASAP, also, we got you a nightgown." Jen looked over to a stray, and the only, dress that was on the bed.

"We thought you where the kind of girl to sleep in one of those, were we right? Anyways Devlin said you where taking a nap, nice invisible skills, didn't know that was part of your semblance, we'll be working on the weapons when you come downstairs, sleep well friend!" Jen put the note down.

"I guess it's time to put these outfits away." Jen got to work, thinking all the while.

Duplica and Angel, there is no way that they are dead right now, right?

Nothing looked wrong with them on the outside, no broken bones, no shown cuts or bruises, it looked like they were fine.

Though that was on the outside, what happened if they where bleeding internally?

They would have bleed out by now.

But are they bleeding on the inside?

Jen didn't know the answer to that one, and she didn't know when she was getting the answers, that killed her.

She sighed as she put the final pair of clothing into her wardrobe.

She cracked a small smile as she tossed her current outfit onto a hamper that was in the room.

She got a better look at the nightgown, it was soft, and it's skirt length ended roughly where Duplica's ended, around the upper thigh length.

She made a small throat laugh, Cassidy was right, she did wear these kinds of wears to bed.

She threw on the nightgown, completely ignoring the new undergarments, she never wore underwear to bed anyways.

Jen made a soft groaning noise as she let herself fall on the bed, soon rolling under the covers.

Truthfully she wasn't too tired, though if it killed the time and got the thought of Duplica and Angel's condition out of her head, she was going to at least try to sleep.

She managed to fall asleep in roughly half an hour, though her dreams weren't peaceful like she hoped it would be.

 


	22. The DM Incident

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a flash back chapter, and we get to see a bit of Jen and Rachel's old team members

"Alright, this mission shouldn't be too hard right?" Jake Matriarch asked as he cocked one of his pistols.

"No, it shouldn't be, we just need to find our missing comrade, the whole schools in on it so we should be fine." Rachel replied.

Recently the school of Apollo had their students practice in a live training event, though at the end one student was not accounted for.

"Do you think he went deeper into the forest then we were supposed to?" Amy Damper asked.

"I don't see any other way for him to have disappeared, come on, let's go find out." Jen replied before running into the forest.

"So, what's our target look like?" Jake asked.

"Um, he doesn't have fur and bone armor?" Jake laughed.

"That's real helpful Jen."

"Well, it's true."

"Good point." Rachel looked onward.

"Watch out guys, Ursa's are ahead.

Amy smirked.

"Sweet, time to get some action!" Amy ran forward, taking out her hook swords.

"Alright team, time to attack!" Jake nodded, aiming his two pistols.

"There are four, so one for each?" Jen asked.

"You read my mind." Rachel replied as the four ran up.

Amy ran past the Ursa, though she extended one of her hook swords until it was around the Ursa's neck.

Amy jumped, soon aiming her second hook sword to the ground, and firing.

She spun around the thing's head, soon pulling the trigger on the first hook sword, and decapitating the Ursa.

"Nice going Amy." Jake complemented as he pressed his triggers, putting two bullets right through his Ursa's head.

"Alright, this group is down, let's investigate a little deeper." The four continued to run deeper into the forest.

"So, how deep do you think he went?" Jen asked.

"I don't know, probably very deep."

"Um, ladies perhaps we should word things better?" Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Get your head out of the gutter Jake."

"Sure thing Rachel." The group stopped running.

"This forest is dense, I don't think we'll be able to scale the whole forest quick enough."

"Coming through ladies!" They heard the leader of another group shout.

"I think we have enough teams to do so, should we look around this area?" The other three nodded their heads.

"Alright, then let's do this." The group spread out, making sure to be only be a few trees away from each other, that way if something happened they would be close enough to help.

"I don't see anything here." Jen said.

"Yeah, it doesn't look like our friend is here." Jake said.

"You know what is here though?"

"What is it Amy?"

"A Deathstalker." Rachel looked over to where Amy was.

"That shouldn't be too much of a challenge."

"It's not alone."

"And neither are you." Amy nodded.

"Good point, well, I'll take out the Beowolves then."

"I'll help." Amy pointed both hook swords to the ground at an angle, and fired.

She soared towards the Deathstalker, quickly hooking her first sword around the stringer.

She fired once she knew she was going to fly towards one of the two Beowolves.

The Deathstalker's stinger was cut off, and Amy flew right past one of the Beowolves.

She hooked the creatures neck as she landed, she was under the Grimm.

She pulled the trigger, causing the hook to rip through the Beowolf's neck.

"How about this?" Jake jumped onto the Deathstalker, then quickly jumped off, tossing one of his pistols at the remaining Beowolf.

The pistol changed, turning into its boomerang form.

It cut once through the Beowolves chest, then through its neck for a second attack.

Jake caught the boomerang and changed it back to its pistol form. He ducked under an attack and kicked the Grimm down to the floor, putting on of his guns to its head.

He pulled the trigger.

"Jen now!" Jake looked to see Rachel had broke the bone armor with her bo staff, and Jen had just punched the stinger into the exposed portion of the Deathstalker.

"Whew, all too easy." Rachel smiled as the others walked over.

"Nice going everyone, those hook swords kick a lot of ass Amy." Amy smiled.

"That's why I love them."

"Right, well, we had no luck here, maybe we will have some better luck if we looked deeper?" At that moment there was a loud noise approaching the group.

"What's that?"

"It sounds like a King Taijitu."

"More like two of them." Jen commented as two slithered up.

"Hm, okay, Jake, Amy, you take on one, Jen, you and I will take the other."

"Right." Amy started by using her weapons to launch herself towards the Taijitu, though right when it was about to bite her, she disappeared.

The Taijitu was confused, though something slashing at it's midriff told it what happened.

Amy had used her semblance, which teleported her, keeping her momentum, and was able to change her direction.

"Come and get some!" Jake shouted at the Taijitu, unloading with both his pistols.

The Grimm to the bait, and struck at Jake.

Jake jumped out of the way, throwing both his pistols, which both turned into boomerangs, and cut through the Grimm's head.

"Ready for round two?" Amy asked as the White Taijitu immerged from the head of the black Taijitu.

Jake smirked as he caught both his boomerangs.

"Bring it on!"

"Nice going Jen!" Rachel said as Jen cut six claw marks into the Taijitu's head.

"Remember Rachel, it's not over yet." Jen replied, soon having to block an attack from, the White Taijitu.

"That's no problem, just get out of the way." Jen nodded, then jumped out of the way.

Rachel fired three grenades at the Taijitu, they did heavy damage.

"Aces, the Taijitu is no more!" Jen shouted victoriously as she slashed at the last Taijitu.

"He's down for the count." Jake shouted as Amy cut through the head of the second Taijitu.

"Nicely done, come on, we should search a bit deeper." Jen said.

"Not too far though, I think the Antles live only a bit deeper into the forest." The group paused at Rachel's reply.

"Have we ever faced one of those before?" Amy asked.

"I don't think so, and from hearing about them I'm not sure if I would like to." Jake said.

"Well we'll go deeper into the forest, but keep our eyes peeled." Rachel suggested.

"Sounds good to me."

"Yeah, okay, let's do this." The group ventured deeper into the forest.

Rachel wasn't sure how to feel, or what to expect.

She knew the Antles existed mostly deep within the forest, though there was always a stray hive that was closer to the outskirts of the forest.

She was confident that her team would be able to face one, but, what if her team found the full hive?

Would they be able to take out the hive?

The question was soon to be answered.

"Holy, Antles dead head." Rachel rose an eyebrow.

Sure enough there was an Antles in the direction they were facing, and it was headed right for them.

It looked like it had two allies right behind it.

"Hm, time to fight I guess, Amy I don't know if there is something for you to hold onto on their body, so try to stay behind me, Jen, you know what to do, Jake, try to wait for an opening, okay team, go!" Jen rushed forward, she had a vague idea of what to do. She ran forward, full speed ahead, the Antles didn't slow down either.

Right when it was about to use its pincers to stab Jen, Jen went to the floor and slid under the beast.

She ripped through the bottom of the beast, and it collapsed.

"Aces, that was," before Jen could continue talking one of the backup Antles used its pincers as a club to knock Jen upwards.

"It's going to try and eat her." Amy said.

"Not if I can help it." Rachel fired a grenade at the beast, making the armor crack, and break.

"Amy!"

"On it." Amy ran forward.

She launched herself once more with the shotgun blasts.

"Jake!"

"Right." The Antles went to trap Amy in its pincers, though Amy disappeared.

"Whoa!" Jake tossed a boomerang at the Antles, soon tackling Jen and landing on his feet, holding Jen in his arms.

"You okay?" Jen got out of his hands.

"Just fine." Jen looked to the Antles.

Jake's boomerang cut through the first one, and Amy had teleported form the ground and used both her hook swords to cut the bottom of the Antles while she slid out from the bottom.

"There we go, easy." Amy said as she got up.

"So you think, look." Five more Antles showed up.

"Shit, we must be close to a hive."

"We could be, though Amy remember, the Antles burrow underground, these things could have just dug their way over here when we attacked the other three, one of them could have sent a distress signal before it died."

"Well that doesn't really matter right now, what matters is that we get rid of them before they become an annoyance."

"That's kind of too late." Five more showed up.

"Shit, we're surrounded." Jen said.

"What should we do Rachel?" Jake asked.

"Well, I guess we have nothing else to do other than fight, we'll try to get someone else's attention if we can." Rachel fired a grenade into the air.

"Now move!" Jen rushed towards one of the Antles, Amy launched herself up to a tree and started to swing on one of the branches, Jake held onto Rachel, who used a grenade to launch to two up towards another tree.

"Alright, Jen can take the hit, but once the grenade explodes, it should crack at least part of each Antles's armor, I want you to attack with your guns at first Jake, though when they run out use them as boomerangs, Amy, just go what you've been doing."

"Can do." Amy said as she was reloading her hook sword.

"Okay, so…" Jen looked up, then ran over to an Antles, soon doing the same sliding trick that she and Amy where doing previously.

The grenade landed, and Jen was out of the middle of the explosion.

"Let's go!" Jake started by unloading on the crowd, managing to kill three of the Antles.

Amy jumped down, hooking her swords onto the branch once more and gaining momentum as well.

She quickly teleported, she unloaded as she ripped through another Antles's under belly.

"That was simple enough." Jen said as Jake killed the final Antles with his boomerangs.

"I won't say that just yet, more are on the way, and, wait, is that…"

"Is that what Jake?" Rachel's question was soon answered when she looked to see what was approaching.

"Is that the Antles queen?"

"I think so Rachel, what are we going to do?" Amy asked.

"Um, well maybe it's like the other Antles? Try that tactic you and Jen did before." Amy nodded.

"Can do." Amy launched herself high into the air.

"If the Antles is that big, I think I might need some more velocity then this." Amy spun, then fired towards the air, rocketing towards the ground.

"Whoa Amy, what are you doing!?" Amy continued to unload, until she was barely above the ground.

She closed her eyes and put her weapons in position, though sadly all she heard was a bunch of scraping.

She opened her eyes right as she slammed into another Antles.

"Shit, the bottom is armored!" Rachel paused, that was going to complicate things, not a single part of the body was exposed?

"What's on the back of the queen?" Amy looked to see the queen, um, birthed another Antles.

"Ew."

"What?"

"Um, this thing is shitting out new Antles!" Before Rachel could do or say anything Amy was trapped by Antles's pincers.

"Whoa!" Rachel aimed her bo staff.

"Hold on, I've got you!" Rachel fired a grenade, it hit though it rocketed Amy right in front of the queen.

"Amy!" Rachel heard Jake shout, though she wasn't able to help or look sense an Antles attacked from behind her.

"No Jake, don't!" Rachel knocked the Antles into a tree, then turned to look in horror as both Jake and Amy where stabbed through by the queen's talons.

"Shit, guys!" Rachel aimed.

"Rachel no, that'll kill them!" Rachel frowned.

"Come on, we need to stop the Antles queen!" The two charged forward, though they where sadly too late.

"No, shit!" Rachel shouted.

"Are they, you know…"

"Not if we get them out before they hit the stomach acid." Though before they could act two other huntsmen grabbed them and jumped out of the way of a third huntsmen, who ripped the Antles queen into little bits with his chaingun.

"Sheesh, that was close, hey, are you okay?" Rachel and Jen where speechless, they could have saved their friends, but…

"Where is the rest of your team?" Rachel made a soft whimpering noise.

"Huh?"

"They were just eaten by that Antles queen." The other huntsmen rose their eyebrows to Jen's response.

"What?"

"We were going to save them, but, that chain gun…" Jen's voice trailed off, both Jen and Rachel where speechless.

Rachel looked over to Jen.

Jen paused, though she hugged Rachel soon after.

"This is Team DIMD (diamond) reporting, we found the kid, everyone else, give us your status." The groups scrolls went off.

"Team BLDE (blade) here, we're good."

"Team HAWK reporting, good job team Diamond."

"This is Team JADE, we're here with Team RMDY, or, what's left of it anyways." The call went silent.

"They were ambushed by an Antles hive, only two remain." Jen sighed, trying to keep her tears in.

Rachel was failing at doing the same.

"Where are they, are they okay?"

"With all due respect they just watched both their teammates and probably closest friends die in front of them, how do you think they are right now?" There was a moment of silence.

"Alright, Oum, shit, we're going to make our way over to where you are, where are you?"

"Hey." Rachel looked into Jen's eyes.

"They're gone Jen, gone." Jen sighed, a tear present on her cheek.

"I know, I know." She was trying to find something encouraging, or perhaps soothing, to say, though nothing was coming to mind.

She couldn't think of anything to say, and that was rare.

Rachel hugged her again, the two's realization hit both of them full on.

"Alright, of course we're staying by to guard them, I know, okay, bye." The huntsmen closed his scroll and sighed.

He doubted those poor girls would forget this day any time soon.

Sadly he wasn't wrong.


	23. Ghastly Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group continues to recover, though Jen and Rachel's worry for Duplica and Angel is not going away, are they going to be okay?

Jen shouted as she woke up.

She quickly looked around, then sighed, soon letting her head connect with her pillow once more.

"Why did I get that nightmare? It's not like I need any more reminders that it happened, I know it happened. So why does my mind find it necessary to remind me about that shit?"

"What's with the shouting?" Jen paused, then slowly looked to the door.

"Oh, hey Fu." Fu frowned, something seemed off.

"Why where you shouting?"

"I had a nightmare, sorry if it was disrupting the rest of you." Fu rose an eyebrow, frown leaving her face, being replaced with a look of concern.

"You had a nightmare?"

"Yes." Jen rolled on her side, she wanted Fu to leave, though she didn't want to be rude and tell her to do so.

"What was it about?" Jen paused.

"The DM incident." Fu rose her eyebrow again.

"You mean that incident that you said your parent's stopped talking to you for?" There was a pause.

"Yes." Fu nodded, she could tell she was prying into business she wasn't supposed to be, so she decided to digress.

"Okay, well, me and the others would appreciate a helping hand if you are getting up today, so," Fu began to walk out of the room, she knew she sounded rude, though she's been talking like that all her life, she wasn't too sure what kind of tone she was supposed to put on at that time, let alone how to execute that tone well.

"Okay, I'll be down sometime." Fu nodded, then walked out of the room.

"I hope Fu wasn't to mad with me, I wasn't shouting too loud, or at least I don't think I was anyways." Jen got up, then walked over to Rachel's bedroom.

"Hey, Rachel, do you have a moment?" Rachel looked up from the desk that was in her room.

"Sure, what's up?" Rachel looked at the expression on Jen's face.

"Did you have the nightmare again?" Jen sighed.

"We've been having the same nightmare spring up occasionally for a while now, when will it end?" Rachel sighed, putting her pencil down.

"Honestly I don't know, the healing process takes time as you know by now, but I hoped those nightmares would have ended by now." Jen sighed.

"You're telling me." Rachel nodded, she understood.

"Well, perhaps you need to have something help take your mind off of it?" Jen paused.

"I guess, that might help." Jen looked back out the room.

"I'm going to go help the others, you coming with?"

"Maybe later, I've got something I want to finish first." Jen nodded.

"Okay, I'll see you later then." Rachel sighed as Jen walked out of the room.

"Jen's still having those nightmares, I haven't gotten one in a few months, I hope I don't get one as well." Rachel picked up her pencil and continued writing.

She was currently trying to document everything she remembered about the team that nearly killed her and her friends.

Something worth noting was that there were five of them, not four of them.

So they were not a legitimate team seeing as there can only be four people in a team.

She also put into account of their 'agent' names.

There was C, H, A, O, and S.

"So, CHAOS, Team CHAOS I'm going to assume?" Rachel wrote that down.

She was worried about her and Devlin's team, did they even stand a chance without using the EMP trick?

She doubted they could do that again, she didn't think it was wise to fry their weapons and knock out Duplica and Angel again.

C was wicked fast, not even Duplica was able to keep with up him, and Duplica was the quickest out of her team.

H was annoying sense she could deflect bullets and was too quick for their heavy hitters to hit.

A had that barrier thing, and so long as he was hit by something powerful he could use the red wave barrier to knock the others backwards, allowing him time to hit the ground with some wind dust or something, gaining the power right back. That was problematic enough.

O had a chain gun and couldn't be attacked from the front, getting behind him was a problem with the other members of CHAOS around.

S, well, she seemed to have magic like Angel does, though unlike Angel her only weapon was a sword, getting past the magic would be annoying, but doable.

"Hey." Rachel looked up, Ryu was standing by the door.

"Hey Ryu, what's up?"

"I was just checking on how your team is holding up." Rachel sighed.

"This goes without being said, but we could be better." Ryu nodded, then looked at the pieces of paper strewn across the desk.

"What are those for?" Rachel looked back to the papers.

"These are notes about our attackers."

"Your attackers?"

"Yes, me and the others went to Venus, though sadly one day some group decided to attack the school, and we kind of had to flee from the scene." Ryu looked to the papers.

"Team CHAOS? I thought teams could only have four people not five."

"That's why I'm confused, this group we were fighting sent five people after us, and from what I could tell they all fought together like they were part of a team." Ryu continued to read the papers detailing everything Rachel remembered about them.

"Androids? As in these people where not really people?"

"Yes, it sounds weird but I swear it's true." Ryu paused it didn't make any sense to him.

"How could humans be androids?"

"Well, it was androids who were built to look like humans, it wasn't that a human was turned android or anything."

"So, you eight fought five androids, how could they have possibly kicked your asses, it's not like they had auras or something." Ryu looked to see Rachel was frowning.

"That's the weird part, they where androids yes, though they did indeed have auras." Ryu paused.

"Machine's that can generate auras, did they give off a semblance as well?"

"Yes, each one of them had a semblance."

"That's insane, how could that even work?" Rachel shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, judging by what you wrote I'm going to assume you eight made an EMP to stop them?"

"Yes, that's why Duplica and Angel are out cold right now, they used all their chi in order for Devlin to create an EMP shockwave with his semblance."

"I see, where is Jen?" Rachel sighed.

"Either downstairs or wrapped in her covers." Ryu rose an eyebrow.

"Is something bothering her?" Rachel shook her head.

"It's nothing huge, just, past memories is all."

"Past memories?"

"Don't worry Ryu, it doesn't really concern you or the others, anyways I'll be down to help soon, are Devlin's friends here?" Ryu paused, though out of respect he didn't further push the subject.

"Yes, they arrived a couple hours ago. Fu is currently working with Jack on her weapons, Cassidy and Nate and practicing, and Devlin is catching up with Jessica." Rachel rose an eyebrow.

"How is Nate sparring without his weapon?"

"They found him a large stick, they could probably do the same for you if you wanted to join them." Rachel shrugged.

"I don't know, I think I should finish up what I am going first, putting everything I remember on paper seems more important to me." Ryu nodded.

"Alright, I'll be in my room if you need me." Ryu walked off.

Rachel continued writing down the information.

It didn't make sense to her that these androids where this powerful, then again she barely understood anything about Androids to begin with.

She put down her pencil.

"I don't think I can remember anything more, maybe some fresh air will help?"

…

Ryu sighed as he opened his eyes.

"The spirits are quiet today." He said to himself as he laid down on the bed.

"They have been quiet sense I got here, why have they not answered recently?" Ryu opened the window in his room.

"I need to know more about the two girls that are out cold, what where their names, Duplica and Angel I think? Why do I feel like I've seen them, or known them before?" It was concerning him, the cyan haired one, Duplica, her dress had the same emblem that his head band had, though he was wearing it inside out just in case if he ever went into town no possible aggressors would recognize him and attack him.

He wasn't sure about Angel, she didn't seem to have the icon with her, though she looked familiar.

Did he perhaps know her before?

He wasn't sure, though he kind of doubted it.

Everyone he knew was long sense dead nine years ago, so he doubted Angel was someone he knew.

Besides, the girl he knew who looked like Angel wasn't named Angel, so she was probably just a look alike.

But then again he knew no one named Duplica, yet the girl was wearing a dress with the same emblem that he wore, his family crest, so it's either she was part of the family, or was she possibly wearing that as a trophy, a symbol that she murdered whoever used to wear that dress.

Ryu shook his head, that second one sounded wicked farfetched, though he supposed he would find out whenever Duplica and Angel woke up, if they ever woke up that is.

He was worried about them a little less then the others were, in his opinion they just needed to give the girls more time, they used their entire chi after all, their bodies are just taking time to fully restore, it sometimes took a day to restore all of the chi, they should be awake tomorrow.

Ryu paused, getting back into his meditating stance.

"I might as well try to contact the spirits about this Duplica character, why is she wearing the family's crest on her dress?"

…

"Hey Fu, how is the rebuilding process coming along?" Rachel asked as she walked down stairs.

"I wish it was going by faster, seeing as we kind of need The Queen's Stingers active as soon as possible." Fu said.

"Aie hold your horses Fu, the process, she's going as fast as she can." Rachel looked to the guy who was talking to Fu.

The guy looked like he was roughly a few years older than the others, he was roughly six foot tall with medium slightly messy length blond hair, he had rabbit ears. He was wearing a sort of helmet what would protect his face from sparks and an apron that would do the same. He wore a white long sleeve shirt, dark grey pants, a tool belt, and boots.

"So you must be Jack?" Jack smirked.

"I'm as much Jack as you and I are Faunas." Rachel smiled a little, then nodded.

"True, well, I hope you get Fu's weapons back online soon, I'm going to be outside if you guys need me." Rachel turned and walked outside.

"This still feels weird." Cassidy rose an eyebrow.

"What feels weird?"

"Using this stick as a weapon instead of Viktor." Cassidy nodded.

"I guess I'm just lucky that I don't use any weapons."

"Well, instead you have your aura literally burn you as you fight." Cassidy shrugged her shoulders.

"There's ups and downs of everything Nate." The two looked to the factory.

"Oh, hey Rachel, we're sparring, you want to join?" Cassidy asked as she and Nate walked up.

Rachel shook her head.

"No thanks, I'm just trying to clear my head with some fresh air right now." Cassidy nodded.

"Jen's doing the same." Cassidy gestured to when Jen was sitting.

"Ah, I see." Rachel went to walk, though Cassidy lightly grabbed her shoulder.

"Huh?" Rachel turned to see Cassidy had a, supposed to be anyways, reassuring smile on her face.

"Don't worry Rachel, Duplica and Angel are going to wake up soon, don't you worry." Rachel sighed.

"Problem is, I'm worrying way too much." With that Rachel walked over to where Jen was.

"You think they are going to be okay?" Nate asked Cassidy.

She nodded.

"Yeah, they're just worried about their teammates, it's completely understandable."

"They will wake up, yes?" Cassidy paused.

"I'm no field medic, I have no clue, I hope they will if that answers your question." Nate paused.

"It does in a way I guess." The two gave one final look to Jen and Rachel, both where tossing rocks into the lake.

"They'll be fine, I'm sure." Cassidy said, though the I'm sure part she was clearly bluffing on, she had no clue.


	24. Progression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group go about their day, though Jen's got a new question, and a new relationship is formed.

Chapter 22- Progression

"Sheesh, you're quite the fighter." Rachel said to Ryu as Ryu cut the head off of a Beowolf.

She wanted to keep her mind away from the current situation, it had been roughly three days sense they got to the Keep, though sadly neither Duplica or Angel had woken up yet.

Jack was working on Fu's weapons, though sense it had a whole computer system in it instead of just being weapons it was taking Jack a bit longer to fully integrate the system into the gauntlets.

Currently Ryu decided to go into the forest and attempt to lessen the head count of the Grimm by a few that way they wouldn't have to worry about a Grimm attack happening late in the night.

Rachel tagged along in order to take her mind off of the same subject she was always trying to forget.

"When living in the forest you learn to fight pretty quickly." Ryu said as he reloaded his weapon.

"You live out here?" Rachel asked as she turned both Panther and Leopard back into bracelet form.

"Well, I used to."

"That's interesting, how was life in the forest?" Ryu frowned.

"Rough sadly, always on constant alert of Grimm attacks, losing several people you knew in a single week because of an Antles outbreak, if you don't know what you are doing or how to run a village living in this forest is rough, if not murderous."

"Oh, well, sorry to hear that." Ryu paused, soon readying his katana.

"It's fine, come on, we shouldn't dawdle." Rachel nodded, reforming Panther and Leopard.

"Okay, I'm right behind you." The two looked to see a couple Ursa run towards them.

"I'll take the one to the left." Ryu said, tossing a shuriken at the ground in front of the Ursa.

Rachel watched as Ryu teleported over to where it landed right after the Ursa ran past it.

The Ursa roared in pain as Ryu used a shuriken infused with impact dust to launch himself into the beast.

"Well, that's an interesting semblance." Rachel thought aloud before hitting the incoming Ursa with the water dust crystal part of Panther.

"Ryu!" Ryu looked over.

"Right!" He tossed an electric dust shuriken at the Ursa.

It shocked the water Panther created and the Ursa fell down.

"Nice job." Rachel said as Ryu ran up to her.

"It was nothing, you did a good job at team work, now, are you hurt?" Rachel smiled before shaking her head.

"Not a scratch on me." Ryu in turn smiled as well.

"Perfect, well, we got five killed so far, do you want to shoot for some more?"

"Let's see how many we can kill before dinner comes around." Ryu nodded.

"Sure thing, let's reduce this head count."

While the two were working Rachel would occasionally accidentally put herself into risk, she wasn't paying full attention.

Try as hard as she could, she still couldn't keep her mind off of Duplica and Angel's condition.

She had talked about it with Jen earlier that day, and both girls were fearful for their friend's safety.

If they really were recovering from loss of chi, wouldn't they be awake by now?

According to Ryu the longest it normally takes people to recover their full chi if they where to drain it was would be one day, not three.

So the question was now this, where they in a coma, or where they dead?

Both she and Jen wanted to know, but at the same time where both afraid to find out.

"Whoa, watch where you are going Rachel." Ryu said as he barely managed to block a Beowolf from attacking her.

"Oh, uh, sorry Ryu!" Rachel hit the Beowolf across the face with the impact side of Panther, and the electric side of Leopard.

She then tackled the creature to the ground. Ryu soon jumping on the Beowolf's head to decapitate a Beowolf Alpha.

"You okay Rachel?" Rachel nodded as she got up.

"I'm not scratched."

"Well, I meant mentally wise." Rachel paused.

"The answer is more obvious then you think." Ryu sighed.

He had a feeling this mission wouldn't distract her, it was understandable why it didn't, but he was hoping it would.

"Do you want to go back?" He asked.

"I think it would probably be best before I walk right into a Deathstalker or something." Rachel turned to walk off.

"Hey." Rachel turned around.

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about it?" Rachel sighed.

"What is there to talk about? Duplica and Angel are either dead or in a coma, you already know about it, and I'm obviously not being able to focus because of it, you know that, what is there to talk about?"

"I feel like there is something else bothering you." Rachel paused, Ryu wasn't wrong, but, how did he know something else was bothering her?

"I'm sorry, it just seemed like something else was bothering you, I could be wrong, if you want I'll drop the sub,"

"No." Ryu paused.

"You're not wrong Ryu, there is something else on my mind." Rachel normally didn't like telling just anyone about her personal life and her past, though Ryu felt trustable, so she didn't mind talking to him about the problem.

"Okay, what else is bothering you?" Rachel sighed.

"If they truly are dead, well, this isn't the first time I lost two of my team members to the enemy." Ryu rose an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Last year, when I was at Apollo, I used to be the leader of my team, but something bad happened, and two of my teammates died. I thought that probably meant I was a bad leader, so when me and Jen met Duplica and Angel we all decided to let Duplica be the leader instead, I can't believe this is happening to me and Jen again." Ryu put an arm around Rachel.

He understood how it felt to lose a loved one, it was sad to know that something similar already happened to Rachel and Jen.

"I just want them to wake up." Ryu sighed.

"They'll wake up soon."

"I hope so, I really hope so." Ryu looked around.

"Come on, let's get back to the Keep, it's safer to talk there." Rachel nodded.

"Okay."

"Just stay close, I'll keep you safe." Rachel readied Panther and Leopard.

"Right behind you."

…

"I'm telling you you're going to burn the food if you keep that up." Devlin commented to Nate.

"Now if only I had my fire dust."

"That would turn the food into charcoal!" Cassidy laughed.

"Nate, let Devlin cook, he's the only one who knows how to between us."

"What about Jen, Rachel, or Ryu?"

"Well, Rachel and Ryu are currently in the Evermore forest, something about reducing Grimm headcount, and Jen, well, I don't think she, or Rachel for that matter, are in any mental state to be trusted with cooking, I don't even know if they know how to cook."

"Who knows how to cook?" The group looked to see Ryu and Rachel walk into the kitchen.

"Oh, hey Ryu, Rachel, we were just wondering if you two or Jen knows how to cook."

"I know how to cook." Ryu said.

"Yeah, me and Jen know how to as well, though I don't know where Jen is, and I don't think I trust myself with cooking right now."The group looked at each other.

"Now that you mention it, has anyone even seen Jen today?" There was a collective no to Devlin's question.

Devlin sighed.

"I'll go check to see if she's in her room." Rachel offered.

"I'll go check to see if she's by the pond yet again." Ryu replied.

"Okay, come back when you find out if she is there or not." The two nodded, then walked off.

"Where else could Jen possibly be?" Cassidy asked.

Devlin sighed.

"She could be in the forest." The others looked at each other.

"Why would she be in the forest?" Fu asked.

"Possibly to blow off some steam?" Nate suggested.

"I don't know, though I feel like if Jen doesn't show up at the lake or in her room we should go looking for her." The group looked to see Rachel and Ryu walk back into the room.

"She wasn't in her room." Rachel said.

"She wasn't at the pond either." The group looked to each other.

"Come on guys, we need to find her before the sun sets." The others got up.

"Hold on, I'll stay back, I need to continue cooking." The others nodded.

"I think you and Nate might want to stay back, where's Jessica?"

"Oh, I saw her by the lake, we can probably get her to join us." Ryu replied.

"Why should I stay back?"

"Well, you don't have Victor, unless you can fight without it?"

"He can borrow my old Panzer to use as a club."

"What will you use then Rachel?" Rachel flicked her wrists, allowing both bracelets to brake.

She flicked upward, and caught both dust chucks.

"I still have Panther and Leopard."

"Alright, well, any able fighters should go with us."

"Come back in one piece won't you?" Devlin said.

"Well, I hope that six people won't come back in one piece, more like six pieces." Devlin paused at Jack's comment.

"You get what I mean though, and what do you mean six, Ryu, Rachel, Cassidy, Nate, and Jessica, that's five."

"You forgot Fu." Fu rose an eyebrow.

"Excuse me? My drones and weapons aren't ready yet."

"The only thing missing is the computers, I'm going to have to build those manually before I put them into the gauntlets themselves, but the Gauntlets can be used as weapons on their own, you just won't have your drones." Fu paused, then nodded.

Jen saved her life on a few occasions, she might as well pay Jen back one.

"Alright, you're not coming along?" Jack shook his head.

"I don't have a weapon of my own, I just help build them." Fu nodded.

"Alright, we'll be back soon then." The group ran out of the kitchen and soon the Keep.

…

Jen sighed she turned off the hot water.

The day was spent by the lake again, though sadly it was nothing relaxing like Jen was hoping she would be able to get.

She attempted to meditate, though unlike every other time she meditated she had way too much on her mind.

Not only did she have to worry about her teammates, she also remembered she needed to improve herself before the group fought Team CHAOS once again.

They actually managed to drain her chi, HER CHI, from what she knew she had the biggest amount compared to anyone she's ever known, so it was scary to her to know that these new foes managed to drain her chi almost completely and almost shattered her aura barrier.

She knew she needed to shape up and improve in order to strengthen her aura, though meditation could not happen in the state she was in, her focus was everywhere at the moment, and that cannot happen if she wanted to meditate.

She sighed one more time as she put on her nightgown and walked over to the kitchen, she was probably going to cook something quick, eat, then go to bed, there wasn't much else for her to do.

She couldn't focus enough to meditate, she didn't have her weapons to practice with, so there goes maybe sparring or killing things in the Evermore forest, and she didn't want to talk to the others if it meant they would try to make her feel better about the situation, she didn't need any of that.

"Oh, hey Jen." Devlin said nonchalantly as he looked back to the food he was cooking.

"Wait, what?" He quickly turned back around, tail almost whacking the pan and dropping what he was cooking on the ground.

"What?" Jen asked, confused about the sudden reaction.

"Where were you?"

"Taking a shower, why?"

"Oh, the others didn't see you by the lake or in your room, so we kind of assumed you where blowing off steam in the Evermore forest." Jen paused, then shook her head.

"I wouldn't go fighting out there without Dinding Heran, seeing as it's kind of broken right now my attacks wouldn't be as powerful as they could be." Devlin nodded.

"I should probably call them to tell them you're here."

"No need, I'll call Rachel." Jen replied as she opened her scroll.

"Hey Jen, where are you?"

"I'm in the kitchen, about to eat dinner."

"… wait what?"

"You know next time knock on the bathroom door, I was taking a shower." There was a pause.

"Oh, okay, well, me and the others will be back in a few, we just need to get out of the forest first."

"Cool, see you back here soon." Jen closed her scroll.

She looked over to Jack.

"You decided to stay?"

"I don't have any weapons, so sending me out to go find you would be a terrible idea." Jen nodded.

"Good point."

"So, how are you holding up?" Jen paused, this is the exact reason why she didn't want to talk to the others.

"About as good I can be I guess." Devlin and Jack looked at each other.

"Anyways, how's the rebuilding process?" Jen decided to digress.

"It's going well actually, once I get Fu's weapons up and operational I'll be able to get the other weapons working by the end of next week." Jen nodded.

"That's good to know, we're going to have to train as soon as we can in order to parallel those androids." Devlin nodded.

"Rachel showed us the notes she wrote, so at least we have info on the enemy, now we just need to learn how to counter them."

Devlin put a steak in front of Jen.

"If you're a messy eater I think you might want to change your clothes." Jen shook her head.

"My eating habits are thankfully neat."

"There you are." Rachel said as the group came back.

"We were worried you went into the forest." Ryu said as he and the others sat down around the table.

"Don't worry, I was just showering."

"You might want to stop holing yourself up inside your room." Jen rose an eyebrow and looked over to Fu.

"What? I go outside."

"That's not the point." Fu silently cursed herself.

She didn't want to outright express worry towards Jen, she didn't want her to know the she liked her, course she didn't know that Jen is oblivious to knowing if people love her.

"What is the point then?" Fu paused, trying to muster the courage to express her worry.

"I think what Fu is trying to say is that you should hang out with us more, so we know where you are." Jen sighed.

"I could just message Rachel where I am, anyways if I'm not in my room or at the lake I'm most likely either in the bathroom or in the kitchen." Fu sighed, of course she messed up talking to Jen again.

"It's alright Fu, I got what you meant." Jen was curious now, why was Fu acting so awkward towards her all of a sudden?

She decided to ask Fu about it tomorrow, but for now, eating her dinner, trying to meditate one more time, then going to bed sounded good for her.

…

"So, how's the rebuilding process going Gold?" Gold sighed.

"It's going to take a while sense I have to build from the bottom up, I have Chrono and Helen up and ready, but I'm waiting to build the other three before actually activating them." Platinum nodded.

"Alright, just try to make it quick, we need to find and execute Duplica and Angel before they can have the chance to try and stop us."

"Right."

…

"Thanks for keeping an eye out for me out in the Evermore Forest Ryu." Rachel said as she and Ryu walked into her room.

"It was nothing Rachel, just looking out for my friends." Rachel knew the smile Ryu was giving her, it was old looks Jake would give her, she knew he liked her, he didn't let onto it as much as Jake did, but there were enough small signs to tell her that Ryu liked her.

"So…" Ryu awkwardly began.

"Um…" The two looked at each other.

"This is going to sound weird but… wanna go out?" Ryu rose an eyebrow to Rachel's sudden question.

"Well, yes, I would love to, but that question was so sudden." Rachel laughed.

"I know you liked me, and I like you as well, so I decided with that information I might as well ask the question." Ryu paused, then nodded.

"I guess I was making it obvious, well, I would love to go out with you." Rachel nodded, then smiled a little, soon grabbing a orange tanktop and black short shorts.

"I'm going to shower, then go to bed, okay?" Ryu nodded.

"I'll be in my room if you need me Rachel." Rachel nodded.

"Okay, good night Ryu."

"Good night Rachel."


End file.
